


A Meaning of Family

by Betray802



Category: G. I. Joe (Cartoon), Magnum P.I. (1980)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Kidfic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-04
Updated: 2012-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-17 17:08:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 42,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Betray802/pseuds/Betray802
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after 'Computer Complications,' Mainframe and Zarana are drawn back together to save the daughter they've never been allowed to know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

The house and the land it sat on was deeded under the name of a member of European nobility who had been murdered during the Vietnam War. All bills and similar correspondence was handled under that name. Somewhere in a file cabinet were papers for all of them, with the name Travis Archer under the space marked 'Legal Guardian'. Very few people needed to know that Travis Archer was a Master Sergeant in the Force Recon arm of the United States Marine Corps, and was therefore out of the country more often than he was in it. Money was administered through an offshore account under the name of an infant who had died at less than three months of age in 1820. The house itself -- set well back from the road and surrounded by trees -- was far enough out of the city that most residents of that city wouldn't venture that far away from their safe little cocoons for no good reason, but close enough that the house's residents weren't totally isolated. There were 24 of those permanent residents, and five former occupants who 'dropped in' whenever they were in town -- which was as rarely as they could possibly manage. One indelible but permanent scar the deceptively peaceful Midwestern city of 111,454 left on those who managed to escape her clutches was the need to get as far away as possible. And then stay there.

  
It was to this unlikely arrangement that not-quite-11-year-old Zoya Parker found herself deposited one frigid Saturday morning in February, dropped off like an unwanted house pet literally by the side of the road. Monkeywrench let her out, lifted her pitiful baggage out the back of Thrasher's Thunder Machine, and jerked one thumb in the direction of the house. "Go on, then. You'll be well enough 'ere. Knock on the door, ask for Ashley."

  
_'Like as not get my head ripped off and kicked out on my arse with it under my arm.'_ But she'd learned before her ABC's not to voice such thoughts aloud. She hoisted her bags and had disappeared into the trees before Thrasher got the Thunder Machine in gear. It hadn't yet gone 5:00am.

_'All you need to do is get lost in the woods, and you'll find the Beast's castle.'_ The long drive was framed by trees, and her fanciful imagination didn't take much encouragement to believe that those trees were moving ever closer together, hemming her in. _'Look at it this way, even becoming a Beast's breakfast has to be better than having to be around them!'_ Zartan had died quite mad when she was about 6, and then a little over a month ago Zandar had laid his bike down in front of a freight train. Her own mother hadn't even thought enough of her to stick around at all! Zandar had told her that his sister had abandoned her only child at 6 weeks of age, disappearing completely. As to her father, Zoya had somehow known never, never to ask. With Zandar's death, Buzzer -- the only one of the lot with any decent amount of book-learning -- had taken over the gang, and had promptly decided that the girl was a liability. _'Guess I ought to be grateful I wasn't stuffed in a sack, weighted with rocks and tossed in the river, like kittens.'_

  
She finally reached the house, and was surprised to see lights on, and people moving around inside, so early on a Saturday. She nervously tugged at one red-green-black braid -- Zandar had made her color her hair, and now she had no idea what color it had been originally -- and climbed the porch steps."I'm looking for Ashley. My name is Zoya Parker."

  
Within short order she was swept inside and upstairs. Ashley herself showed Zoya to a bunkbed, set in one corner of a long room on the second floor of the house. The room was haphazardly divided with the kind of bunkbeds set at angle to each other, bookcases, desks, stereo centers and dressers. Stereos played everything from Avril Lavigne to Alabama. As Zoya stood there, an arm reached out from underneath a burgundy satin comforter on a top bunk, fumbling with a remote. The Dixie Chicks turned into Kenny Chesney turned into a commercial turned into Hootie  & The Blowfish turned into Nickelback.

"Hope you don't mind the bottom bunk. You're right over the heat vent."Ashley had turned out to be going-on-17, brunette with smiling green eyes -- the last person Zoya would have imagined having anything to do with a pack of mercenary terrorist bikers like the Dreadnoks.

  
The top bunk was occupied by a 3-year-old girl, sleeping under a pile of stuffed animals and a few real ones, with a Powerpuff Girls comforter half kicked off. Ashley replaced it, gently feeling the child's forehead as she did so. A railing prevented the girl from falling out.

  
"No, no I don't mind the bottom. It would be cruel to move her." Zoya jumped as a large white cat with piercing blue eyes landed on the denim comforter of her new bed.

  
"Dress Whites. Don't bother yelling, he's deaf. _Gift_ from my cousin in the Navy."

  
From across the room -- "Hey, Ash. New girl?"

  
"Yeah, her name's Zoya."

  
"Hey, Z. I'm Karen."

  
"Karen's one of our mutants. If you've got a problem with mutants now's a real bad time to say so. And I'm an alien. Witches we don't have, all the witches we know have parents."  


Zoya looked across the room at All-American girl-next-door blonde hair and blue eyes as she changed into her pj's--or more formally, a pair of castoff sweats her mother hadn't bothered taking along. "No, really. Tell me another one."

Karen's eyes danced in the cast light from the stereos. "Don't look the part, yeah, I get that a lot. _'A nice-looking girl like her, a mutant,'_ that kind of thing. You'll meet Johnny later. He more than balances me out."

  
The burgundy satin spoke. "You should see them walking down the street. Talk about people look."

  
Giggling in spite of herself, Zoya lifted the denim to slip between jersey sheets. "I don't think I snore, but don't hesitate to toss something at me if I do." She was asleep before Dress Whites had gotten himself resettled.

  
Downstairs, Ashley pinned Steve with a look. "Remind me I need to call Mulan as soon as it's a decent hour."  
  



	2. Settling In and Dicoveries

Life in the house settled into a pattern for Zoya. Ashley had hacked into the city's school computer system and made it look like Zoya belonged there.  
  
"It absolutely astonishes me how pathetically easy these Earth computers are to break into. And how once you tell them what they expect to know, they shut up and leave you alone!"  
  
Despite living with the Dreadnoks, Zoya had managed to pick up enough book learning to bluff her way through the 5th grade of Penelope Spaulding Elementary Academy. Her hair attracted attention for a while, as did her Aussie accent, but eventually interest in 'the new girl' died down.   
  
It was a pretty good deal. Hot food, instead of whatever scraps the men left behind; a real bed instead of rolling up in a blanket in a corner; a decent roof over her head instead of a shotgun shack in a swamp; nice clothes instead of cut-down rags. Best of all, people who actually seemed to care about her well-being, instead of a bunch of fools who'd as soon kick her as notice she existed.  
  
"Hey, Micro-Snake, what's this?" Mulan MacArthur had tagged Zoya with the nickname within an hour of meeting her. Ashley was Baby Snake. It didn't take much guessing on Zoya's part to figure that Mulan's father must have been a G.I.Joe. The three girls had been going through Zoya's belongings, when Mulan pulled a large packing envelope out of the lining of a bag. It seemed well-stuffed with rectangular parcels, and some other items that slid around the parcels, and was held closed with duct tape. "Well, open it." Ashley whipped out the 6-inch switch she carried in her purse, strictly against school regulations.  
  
"Oh my ... " Piles and _piles_ and _**piles**_ of cash poured out of the envelope, tangled with jewelry, and another smaller envelope, the size of a letter. Zoya's name was scrawled across the front. "This is Zandar's writing." Over her head, she didn't notice Ashley and Mulan sharing a look as she opened the letter.  
  
 _"Dear Zoya Gayle,_  
  
 If you're reading this, I must not be around anymore for you to ask the questions I'm sure you have. I only hope the others aren't too hard on you now. I know you won't believe me, but I did try to protect you as best I could, especially after Zartan died. What he did to you and your mother was just wrong, there's no way around it.  
  
 This should be all the money you made running and holding and such, along with a few things I managed to save when Zartan was destroying your mother's things after he ran her off. Yes, ran her off. She never abandoned you, Zoya. She was trying to take you to your father, to escape, but Zartan caught up with her before she could get to where your father was.   
  
 I guess I ought to tell you about your father. After I'm not around to control them, I don't know what the others will say, and I hope you're sitting down as you're reading this. Zoya, your father was a G.I.Joe. I never knew his real name, but his code name was Mainframe. He was a Marine and a computer expert. Perhaps if you can get away from the gang, with this money you can find him. And I hope someday you can forgive your all-too-human uncle.  
  
Zandar"  
  
The single sheet of paper fluttered to the floor from Zoya's nerveless fingers. A shameless snoop, Mulan reached down to snatch it up. She looked askance at the cash on the bed.  
  
"Um, running and holding what, exactly?"  
  
Ashley shrugged, and answered for Zoya. "Whatever needed to be done. Guns, drugs, money, jewels, documents, computer disks – you name it, we hauled or held it. Where do you think I got the money to pay for my Sunfire in cash?"  
  
"Oh."  
  
Zoya's voice was hushed, and Mulan leaned over to turn down the Toby Keith CD.  
  
"When something's been stolen, people tend to look for grown people. Who's going to notice a child with a backpack?"  
  
"Ouch. Good point. Ever lose anything?"  
  
"No. Not once ever. Did you, Ashley?"  
  
"Came close a couple times to having something taken from me, but I'm tougher than I look."  
  
Zoya looked at her new housemate. "I never asked. How on Earth did you get mixed up with COBRA anyhow?"  
  
Ashley tipped back her head, narrowed her emerald eyes and said in a hissing voice, "Don't look at my face!"  
  
Zoya nearly fell off the bed. "Firefly?!? You're related to Firefly?"  
  
"Related hell, he's my father. Twenty years ago give or take, Firefly was assigned to the forward operations post of our home planet's Earth study team. When he found out that our king's uncle was planning regicide, he bailed. Firefly was never any hero, he just didn't want any part of assassination. So, he went looking for someplace he figured the usurper wouldn't find him, and found COBRA. By the time he realized he'd made another mistake, it was too late to back out."  
  
"So we were both trapped."  
  
Ashley began sorting the money from the jewelry. "Yeah, pretty much. Wow, you got a pretty good haul here, kiddo. Hello." Dangling from her hand was a gold chain with a pendant of the Eagle Globe  & Anchor insignia of the Marine Corps. "Must be a souvenir from your father."  
  
"So's this." Mulan had bent down to retrieve something that had fallen on the floor. It was a small, black velvet box. Like the kind a ring would go in. She flicked it open with her thumb. A swirl of perfectly ice-white diamonds flashed back at them. "Whoa! How'd anybody swing this on a Joe's pay?"   
  
Zoya quietly took the ring out of the box, then flicked open the catch on the chain. She strung the ring onto the chain so it banged against the Eagle's wings. Then she flipped her braids out of the way so she could slide the chain around her neck. Mulan reached over to help her.  
  
Zoya stood up to look in the mirror, at the diamonds and the Marine insignia backdropped against her new king cobra t-shirt, framed by her tri-colored braids.  
  
Ashley leaned over to pick up Kitt, a pure black cat with a ruby crystal collar. "Hey Mulan, do you still keep contact with any of the people who knew your father?"  
  
"A few. Lemme guess. You want to see if I can get a lead on Mainframe."  
  
"I always thought he never knew about me. But if Zandar's letter is true, he must believe I'm dead or something."  
  
Mulan thought back to the story about Shipwreck's mermaid. "Probably **or something**. Okay Snake Ladies, I'll see what I can do. Meanwhile, I've got to get my Japanese / Korean / Norwegian arse out of here and go to work tonight, or else I'll be walking to class tomorrow 'cause the Hummer is sucking up fumes. I saw gas cheap over by the mall for $2.73, by the way."  
  
"Do you think he'll want me?"  
  
Mulan turned in the doorway to look at Zoya, still staring into the mirror.


	3. Whatever Happened To ... ?

**Yellowknife, Northwestern Territories, Canada**  
  
Go far enough north and the roads run out.  
  
Go far enough north and come to a place where it doesn't know it's spring.  
  
Go far enough north and the sun only comes up an hour every day, if one cares to call that thin piece of disk _‘up.’_  
  
Go far enough north, and come to a place where the bars have names like _‘The Lost-Man Line,’_ and are more likely to have dogsleds and snow machines lined up outside than Harleys.  
  
Zarana sighed as she turned up the volume on the radio to catch the 5th inning of the Expos/Diamondbacks game. The bar was about half-full, all locals. In Yellowknife, Northwestern Territories, locals was pretty much all there was. Even having a lost polar bear wander through town wasn't exciting anymore.  
  
 _'Once I had an exciting life.'_ Trouble was, that exciting life had nearly gotten her killed, and had killed her only child. Polar bears may have been boring, but they didn't mean it personally.  
  
She could still hear Zoya's pitiful crying as Zartan burst through the door of the abandoned gas station they'd holed up in – she, Zoya and Zandar. It was only 15 miles from the Joe HQ, and had a working pay phone still outside. She'd believed they were safe enough for her to call Blaine to come after them. But Zartan was closer than she'd thought, and blind with rage. Zoya had started crying as soon as the roar from Zartan's bike had reached her mother's ears, and she'd only had time to scream once before the door crashed in. She'd heard Blaine's voice on the other end of the line – _“Hold him off! I'm on my way!"_ – then Zartan had ripped the phone out of her hand. _"Don't bother, Joe! There won't be anything left!"_ And Thrasher was picking Zoya up car seat and all, intending to dash her against the wall. 6 weeks old and utterly helpless, her tiny face red as she screamed. Zandar had shaken off Monkeywrench long enough to save the child, but he'd taken a knife in the back from Torch.  
  
 _"Zarana, get out of here! Get out!"_  
  
Zartan had clouted her in the head, sending her reeling against the countertop, where she'd hit her head again. Dazed, with Zandar's cries of _"Get out of here!"_ ringing in her ears, she'd managed to get outside and to Zandar's bike, wondering as she kicked it over, where the child's crying was coming from.  
  
And that was the shadow that followed her all the way through the northern US and into Canada. It had been days before her head had cleared, and by the time she'd managed to get back to the gas station, it was empty, with no sign anyone had ever been there. No sign of Zoya at all.  
  
Zarana hadn't needed a crystal ball to know what had happened. Zartan had most likely slaughtered both his infant niece and his brother, then laid in wait for Mainframe to arrive. She imagined Blaine walking in, finding Zoya's tiny corpse on the floor. And while he'd been grieving, Zartan would have cut him down as well. There was nothing left to stay for, and no assurance that Zartan would leave things unfinished. He'd stay in the area, waiting for her return, so as not to leave any ends untied. She needed to get as far away as possible.  
  
She'd gotten as far as Yellowknife before her money and Zandar's bike both ran out. The owner of The Lost-Man Line had given her a job, and she'd hidden here ever since. She'd changed her looks, letting the pink wash out of her hair and growing the resultant dark honey braid past her waist. Changing her style of dress had been a necessity. She'd gone from ripped shirts and jeans to sweatshirts and lined long johns. Still cold.  
  
The door banged open and she turned to greet the three strangers who sauntered in.  
  
"Evening, gents. What can I get you?"  
  


##########

  
**Scottsdale, Arizona, USA**  
  
"Aw, come on! He was out!"  
  
"Safe. By a half-step. Watch the replay. See? Tie goes to the runner. Here comes Brenly. Give 'im hell, Bob." Satisfied that the required argument would take place, Blaine Parker hauled himself up off the couch. "You want another beer?"  
  
"Nah. I've had my limit. Anybody else?"  
  
"Yeah, I'll have another one." Wendell Metzger held up his empty Coors.  "You never could hold your booze, kid."   
  
Jack Morelli looked askance at the man he was still more inclined to think of as 'Leatherneck' instead of 'Wendell'. Of course, most people still called him 'Dial-Tone', too. "If you think I'm pouring your carcass into a taxi tonight … "  
  
"Nobody's pouring anybody into anything. You're all more than welcome to stay the night, you know that. God knows I have the room." Blaine collected the empties from the table and disappeared into the kitchen.  
  
Jack watched him go, then turned his attention back to the TV.  
  
"Hey, did he get in trouble in his own kitchen?"  
  
Jack looked up suddenly. Wendell was looking in the direction of the kitchen, where Blaine had vanished five minutes ago. "Sit, I'll get him."  
  
He found his friend right where he expected to, staring out the window at nothing. These episodes were not uncommon, though thankfully much rarer than they'd once been. After that awful night at the abandoned gas station, Mainframe had had to take a 6-month leave to pull himself together. It had nearly cost him his career, and had cost him an officer's commission.  
  
Ten years ago, Dial-Tone had been two steps behind Mainframe going in. They'd pulled up to the place to find nobody, and no replies to Mainframe's repeated calling of Zarana's name. Mutt had been shanghaied along, on the grounds of needing Junkyard's nose.  
  
"Hey, Mainframe. Somethin' inside Junk doesn't like."  
  
Inside had been a scene from a charnel house. Blood was everywhere – on the walls, on the floors, on the countertops. And laying on that countertop, next to a long-defunct cash register, were four items – a tiny pink teddy bear, barely the size of Mainframe's fists together, a pink onesie with a jagged knife slash in the front, and Zarana's shoulder guards. All were soaked with blood. Nobody needed to guess what had happened. Zarana had stopped here, thinking she was safe enough to call for help. Unfortunately, Zartan had gotten here before she'd expected him – or perhaps had gotten ahead of her and laid in wait. Then he'd slaughtered both her and the child, leaving only the macabre memorial for Mainframe to find.  
  
The stuffed bear now sat on Blaine's desk in his office. The onesie and shoulder guards he'd saved in a boot box, then buried somewhere on the grounds of this estate when he bought the place. What he'd told his parents or his children from his first marriage, Jack couldn't guess. "Hey, Blaine. Hey."  
  
Blaine snapped his head around, blinking. "Oh, hey Jack. Sorry. I – spaced out there, I guess."  
  
"Yeah. Leatherneck's wondering where his beer went. Brenly got tossed, by the way."  
  
"I figured he would."


	4. Finding Out the Hard Way

**Somewhere over Iraq**  
  
Four F/A-18D Super Hornets sliced through the desert night sky, two pair in perfect synch. Scurry  & Tabby, Tagalong & Flatso, Hangman & Chaos, and Sixth-Sense & Eighty-Two.   
  
Scurry – aka Lt. Calhoun Parker – gripped the controls of his jet as information bombarded him from all sides. They were coming over the area where Mischief and Cannonball had reported taking fire two days earlier, and Scurry placed no faith in reports that the area had been cleared.  
  
"I **HATE** when I'm right!" From Eighty-Two as the tail of Tagalong's plane exploded. "Tagalong! Flatso! Get out of there!"  
  
"Two chutes! Two chutes!" From Chaos as Hangman slewed his Hornet through a turn that would kill any feathered creature foolish enough to try it.  
  
 _'All the damn technology in the world at our fingertips, and Tagalong and Flatso just got tagged by an illiterate farmer with who-knows-what weaponry and next-to-no training in it.'_ Hornets had been known to take hits from SAMs, limp back to the carrier, get fixed, and scream off again practically the next day. Tagalong's plane and this day weren’t going to be one of those times.  
  
"Where are they? Where are they?" Tabby was trying to see Tagalong and Flatso's chutes, so as not to hit them. Or at least try not to.  
  
"SCURRY!" Sixth-Sense's voice was barely audible over the terrible sound of the Hornet's port wing being sheared off nearly at the engine intake. No nursing this bird back to the nest. "See you on the deck, Tabby!" Scurry yanked the ejection lever and felt the G-forces kick him in the six.  
  
If there was any worse sight then hanging in your straps, tracers coming up all around you, watching your disabled plane plummet to earth without you, Scurry did not at that moment want to know what it was. Then he saw Tabby jerk spasmodically in his straps, like a marionette gone haywire, and suddenly fall limp. Oh no oh no oh no ... ' _Where the hell are Hangman and Sixth-Sense?'_ "You guys get outta here!" _'I gotta find Tagalong and Flatso when I get down there.'_  
  
And that was when the ground reached up to slam into him.  
  


##########

  
**Somewhere in the American Midwest**  
  
Cerise turned backwards in her seat to look at an at least skeptical Zoya. "I'm telling you, Matt is very much majorly crushing on you." she waved one hand at Zoya's seatmate. "Ask Tori if you don't believe me. She's his cousin and they live in the same house. If anyone knows she will."  
  
"You've surpassed Carlos Beltran as his most prominent topic of conversation." Tori pronounced with authority.  
  
"Oh, well, I'm more important than a baseball player. Let me just waltz up to the front of the bus and fall right into his arms." Zoya didn't remind her friends that Matt hadn't even noticed her, let alone spoken to her, until she'd shown up a week ago wearing her Marine necklace. The bus slowed and she snatched up her backpack. "I believe this is my stop, ladies. See you all Monday!"  
  
As she passed a group of boys near the door, one dark head looked up from an issue of Baseball Weekly and grinned. "’Bye, Zoya."  
  
"’Bye." She steadfastly ignored the little flutter in her midsection at the sight of his smile, telling herself sternly that it was an aftereffect of the baked macaroni and cheese the cafeteria had served today. Her friends seemed to think that it was an act of extreme bravery on her part to have eaten her entire serving. Of course, they'd never had to fight Ripper for a meal.  
  
As she headed up the driveway she shook her head. Matt had a nice smile, was fun to be around, and she liked his dog, but a nice smile and a dog weren't a basis for a permanent anything.  
  
She grinned as she saw Mulan's Hummer parked in the yard.   
  
"It's a perfectly logical question, Mulan."  
  
"I know it's a perfectly logical question, that's why it's pissing the hell out of me. Why shouldn't she think that way? Nobody else she's ever known has ever wanted her, she probably thinks she was forcibly dumped on you guys, why should her own father be any different?"  
  
Zoya swung in, her eyes alight. "Well?"  
  
"Nothing yet, kiddo. Be patient, okay? The whole world's gone to hell, it'll probably be a while before I hear back from anybody."  
  
"Okay okay. Hi, Johnny." Zoya broke down laughing when she saw the mutant's t-shirt – **'Nice FACE What Are You Going To Do When The BABOON Wants His ASS Back?'** Only a 6'6", 275-pound mutant covered with dark blue fur and a mountain lion-style face and tail could get away with wearing a shirt like that.  
  
Davey came running in from the TV room. "Hey! They've got something on about those F-18s that got shot down!"  
  
Ashley and Mulan shot up out of their chairs so fast Ashley's went over backwards. In the next room, a monster-screen TV was tuned to one of the many satellite news channels. The news was not good. Two planes lost, two crewmembers known dead, two pilots missing: LCDR Roberto 'Tagalong' Camaletti, and Lt. Calhoun 'Scurry' Parker.  
  
Nobody had to tell Zoya when they put a picture of Calhoun Parker on the screen, so serious and proper in his Navy dress whites. The eyes under that hat were the same eyes that she could see in her own mirror every morning of the week.  
  


##########

  
"Don't ask me what I'm feeling right now."  
  
Jim Bailey looked sympathetically at Mulan as they shared lunch at a beer-and-burger joint near campus. "That bad?"  
  
"How the hell do you comfort an 11-year-old girl who's facing losing a brother she never even knew she had? And saying I've been where she is isn't going to cut any ice. I had my father for nine years."  
  
"Ouch."  
  
Mulan dropped her head into her hands. "It's like this. My father died in that sand pit. For that matter, so did yours. I have no love for anything over there and would just as soon the whole region get blasted into oblivion. A bully is a bully is a bully, whether he's trying to run a schoolyard, a city," And here a glance over her shoulder at the 'local' dictator, calmly having lunch with a pretty young thing at least half his age. "Or a country. You cannot talk to bullies, you cannot reason with them, you cannot negotiate with them. Bullies don't understand any of that. What they do understand is getting their arses waxed. Unfortunately, we seem to be the only people interested in doing it."  
  
"And now it's landed on Zoya's doorstep, and by extension, yours."  
  
"Exactly."  
  


##########

  
**Scottsdale**  
  
Jack pulled up to the mansion with a screech and squeal of tires and brakes. "Blaine?" _'Shit shit shit. This could not possibly have come at a worse time.'_ Wendell had accidentally found the letter Zandar had sent Blaine this afternoon. The senior executive who'd been busted for embezzlement had come after Blaine, and it had taken five men to pull them apart. In the melee Blaine's desk had gone over, and the letter had fallen out of the top drawer.  
  
 _"Mainframe,_  
  
 I need to see you. I'll be in Yuma at the end of next week, between Christmas and New Year's. What you saw 10 years ago wasn't what happened. I've held my silence this long but I can't anymore. I need to set things right. I'll contact you again when I reach Yuma, so we can set up a meeting.  
  
Zandar"  
  
Stapled to the letter was a newspaper article about Zandar, leader of the mercenary biker gang known as the Dreadnoks laying his bike over in front of a train in San Diego. The article was dated 18 December, a week before Christmas. So there was a chance that the kid, Zarana, or both were still alive somewhere. Zandar's conscience had finally gnawed at him enough, and he'd tried to facilitate a family reunion. Jack didn't believe for a second that the accident had been an accident.  
  
And now Blaine's son was MIA. Life sucked sometimes, it truly did.  



	5. Taken

Zoya swung her bike off the sidewalk onto the dirt path behind the Burger King. It was a straight shot to the 7-11, without having to deal with the pack of fools who usually congregated on the corner ahead.  
  
Summer vacation had come, and the normally lax rules in the house had loosened even further. As long as she was in contact with three people, she didn't attract attention from the cops, and she found a ride home if it was getting too dark, she was more or less free to do as she pleased.  
  
The bike had been a gift from Mulan's younger brother, who was in junior high and had outgrown it. It was a ‘boy's bike,’ but it had wheels and it moved. Best of all, Shing Shen had welded a radio to the handlebars. At the moment, melancholy Blake Shelton soared on the hot summer breeze, then turned into Reba McEntire.   
  
_"One honest heart that  
I can believe in  
Two loving arms that  
Will never let me go  
One good man that  
I can count on  
It shouldn't be so hard  
Finding one honest heart."_  
  
 _One Honest Heart_  
Reba McEntire  
 _If You See Him_   
MCA 1998  
  
Spotting the Good Times up ahead, Zoya pulled up to check how much money she had. A sundae sounded really good right about now. As she counted, a flash of charcoal gray paint caught her attention at the same time as an engine that sounded not long for this world. She looked up to see Matt's older brother's '88 Ford Thunderbird LXTC pull up to the curb facing her, steam leaking out through the nose. Kadar got out of the car cursing in four languages. Zoya could see Matt sitting shotgun, and his Rottweiler / Doberman / German Shepherd mix's muzzle poking out from the backseat.  
  
"Can you fix it?"  
  
"Yes and no." Kadar slammed the hood back down, looking like he wanted to kill something.  
  
"Huh?" Matt noticed Zoya and waved, not registering the dark green early-1980's Chevy work van creeping up behind her.  
  
"Yes, I can fix it. No, not in the street like this." Kadar leaned into the car to grab his cell phone.  
  
Zoya screamed.  
  
When she'd seen Kadar lift the T-Bird's hood, waving at the steam and smoke, she'd gone back to her counting, looking up again only when the shadow of the big van blocked out the sun. By then it was too late. She had processed her uncle's face, had enough time to scream, and then a cloth clamped over her face and she was being dragged into the van by her braids. The last thing she was aware of was the van's engine revving as Zartan peeled out.  
  
Without her support the bike toppled over, Jo Dee Messina fading away on the radio, the money scattered around the handlebars.  
  
Kadar chased after the van for a few feet, looking at the space where the license plate should have been. "Damn! Here, you call Uncle Nico to come for the car." He dug two quarters out of his pocket, tossing them at Matt. "I'm calling the cops."  
  
"You can't call the cops! Zoya lives in the Lost Children's House!"  
  
Kadar swore again. His own girlfriend and her younger brother and sister lived in the house. If they were found out their options were a drunk father and a white supremacist mother. "Okay. Okay. Who have you seen her around with?"  
  
"Ummm. Mulan and Ashley, mostly."  
  
Kadar's mind was racing. "Okay. I'll call Mulan."  
  
When Mulan's cell phone rang, she didn't suspect a thing. Johnny, Karen and Steve all claimed to have heard from Zoya, and it was a long way from dark out. "Mulan."  
  
 _"Kadar. I'm back of Good Times over on Lincoln Avenue. Me and Matt just saw Zoya get kidnapped. I'm sorry, but I got a lousy look at the driver."_  
  
Mulan's heart plunged to her feet. "Male, really really green eyes, maybe wearing some kind of a hood?"  
  
 _"You know the guy."_ It wasn't an accusation, merely a statement of fact.  
  
"Her uncle, who she thought died five years ago. Seriously bad mojo. Can you clean it up? I need to call Aidan Abernathy."  
  
 _"Sure."_  
  
"What?" Ashley appeared at her side as Mulan dialed one of their witch friends, one with a strong gift of sight.  
  
"Zartan pulled a Lazarus act. He just snatched Zoya." She paused as the call tone purred in her ear. "Aidan, it's Mulan MacArthur. I need you to meet me over at the Good Times on Lincoln. There's been a kidnapping, and I can't involve the cops."  
  


##########

  
**Phoenix**  
  
The package was sitting on Blaine's desk when he got back from lunch.  Wrapped in brown paper, with _'Mainframe'_ scrawled across the top.  
  
Inside was a diamond ring, a picture of a pre-teen girl, and a note.  
  
 _'Remember the woman you were going to give this to? Come to Paradise if you want to save what's left of your family. Z.'_  
  


##########

  
**Yellowknife**  
  
"Hi, Vicky. Package for you." Molly nodded at the plain brown parcel sitting on the bar. _'Victoria'_ was scrawled across top, in a hand she recognized for all the wrong reasons.  
  
Inside was a broken chain with a pendant of the Marine Corps logo, a picture of a pre-teen girl, and a note.  
  
 _'Remember the man who gave this to you? Come to Paradise if you want to save what's left of your family. Z.'_


	6. A Time Out Of Time

**Chapter SixA: A Time Out Of Time**

` "We said Goodbye` `in `

`Marina Del Rey I `

`Had a good time`   
`Was the last thing `

`I heard her say`   
`As I walked away."`

`_'Marina Del Rey'_`` --` ` George Strait`  
` _'Strait From The Heart'_`` -- MCA 1982`  
` **********`

` **Scottsdale** ` ****  
`June 2003`   
  
` Blaine sat in front of the fireplace, looking at the items on his coffee table. The letter from Zandar, stapled to the newspaper article about his death, the bloodstained teddy bear, the scribbled note from Zartan, the diamond ring. The picture of the child. His child, his daughter. She didn't have any visible bruises showing through her stoplight red shirt and go-light green shorts, and her face was the definition of defiant. _'Please, God, let me get it right this time. Don't let me let her down again. But if I do, don't let me let her down and live.'_`  
  
` He picked up the ring, watching the diamonds capture the light from the fire and hold it fast. June in Arizona and he'd set a fire in the grate, using four long-burning compressed logs augmented with a bundle of dried wood he'd picked up at a store back in January and never used.`  
  
`Tonight he needed a fire, needed the comfort of it.`  
  
`He leaned his head back against the couch behind him, closing his eyes. God, 12 years ago they'd both been so innocent. It had all seemed so easy. He focused on the fire-lit diamonds and allowed his mind to drift back, remembering indeed the woman he'd intended to give it to, and when …`

  
`##########`

` **June 1991** `

` **Southern California** `

` **Somewhere between Santa Barbara and the border** `  
  
` Blaine stepped out onto the porch, dressed only in an old pair of blue jeans and his Marine Corps pendant, cradling a coffee mug. He'd already had a 20-mile run, PT and a shower, now the day stretched out before him. He leaned against a pillar and looked out at the Pacific Ocean.`  
  
` _Leave_ ` `. His favorite five-letter word in the English language. For a full mind-boggling three weeks, his life was his own. Getting leave out of Hawk required an Act of Congress. Getting leave out of Duke required higher clearance.`  
  
` He sipped the coffee while he watched the ocean and sky change as the sun rose behind him. Damn, he loved this place.  (Low-Light had referred to it as _'Mainframe's bolt-hole.'_ Yup.) He'd managed to salvage it during the divorce by selling it to his parents. Cheryl's reaction had been worth the price of admission. As paranoid as she was about earthquakes he knew she'd never have used it, but she knew full well the value of the words _'oceanfront property'._ In her mind she'd already spent the money from the sale.`  
  
`Way out on the water was the rooster tail from a jet-ski. _'Who the hell's out running one of those damn things at this hour?'_ The thought had barely formed when the water machine's engine sputtered and died. The rider tried restarting it twice, and it nearly caught on the second time, and then coughed out again. Blaine sighed, then set his coffee on the porch railing. He loped down to the dock, firing up his 38-foot Sea Ray. Simple enough. Motor out, rescue jet-ski and rider, haul them back to marina. A pleasant morning's distraction.`  
  
`Pleasant, all right, he realized when he reached the stranded water machine. Female, long dark honey hair, wearing a blue-jean bikini under a lifejacket in a shade of pink just hot enough to make the unwary observer wince. At first glance, as she fumbled with the controls of her white-blue-green watercraft in a futile attempt to make it go, Blaine pegged her at 17, one of the many teenage blondes Southern California seemed to be so appallingly well-provided with.`  
  
`Then she looked up, and he felt as if the deck of the Sea Ray had just vanished under his feet. The long hair had thrown him, but there was no `  
`mistaking that face.`  
  
`"Hello, Zarana."`  
  
`Her vivid green eyes went wide with recognition. "Mainframe!"`  
  
`"Hold on, let me come around." He could well imagine her cursing herself as he backed up so the jet-ski was nosed up against the boat's stern. He cut the engines and went aft to help her. Not necessary, he realized, as she'd already dismounted and was tying the jet-ski's handlebars to a cleat on the railing. "Your brothers know you're out here all by your lonesome?" He scanned the horizon for any other vessels, but they seemed to be alone.`  
  
`"Only if they're bloody psychic!" She replied cheerfully. "I'm on vacation for three weeks."`  
  
`"Really. What a coincidence. So am I."`  
  
`He could see the moment the connection clicked in her mind. She turned to him, one eyebrow arching under the fall of bangs on her wig. "Really. What a coincidence."`  
  
`He considered the implications and potential consequences for all of, oh say, five seconds. "Had breakfast yet?"`  
  
`She smiled, a real, genuine smile that lit up her eyes in a way he couldn't believe. "I think I could eat."`  
  
`It became a time out of time, stolen from a future both knew they might never live to see and therefore would never have to repay.`

****************************************************************************************************************************


	7. Dinner And A Dance

` **Chapter Seven: Dinner And A Dance** `

` "We said Goodbye` `in `

`Marina Del Rey I `

`Had a good time`   
`Was the last thing `

`I heard her say`   
`As I walked away."`

`_'Marina Del Rey'_`` --` ` George Strait`  
` _'Strait From The Heart'_`` -- MCA 1982`

` **********`   
` **From Part Six:** ` ` It became a time out of time, stolen from a future both knew they might never live to see and therefore would never have to repay.`   
` **********`

` **June 1991** `

` **Southern California** `

` **Somewhere between Santa Barbara and the border** `   
  
` Candlelight, flowers, soft music, wine, moonlight, ocean ... Blaine stepped back and looked around, unsure whether he was seeing a perfect romantic dinner, or the biggest cliché-fest imaginable. He knew he'd been more nervous simply asking Zarana to stay for dinner tonight than he'd been the day he proposed to Cheryl. That day, he'd simply had every butterfly in Arizona in his stomach. Tonight, they had metamorphosed into frogs. Big fat hopping frogs.`   
  
`They'd been seeing each other for a little over a week, doing whatever caught their fancy. Sailing the Sea Ray to San Diego, hiking in the mountains, a day at Disney, a doubleheader at Dodger Stadium. (The woman had scarfed down five extra-long chili-cheese dogs! _"What? They're good. I don't get stuff like this at home.")_ She'd dragged him through the Hollywood Mall, and he'd dragged her through a technology trade show. This weekend was an antique and classic car show. But they'd always parted ways at the end of the day, he coming back here, and she to her hotel room.`   
  
`By unspoken agreement they didn't talk about their lives outside this private world they'd created. What would happen at the end of three weeks Blaine didn't care to contemplate? He didn't want to think about having to watch her walk away, then facing her again across a field of battle. ' _There has to be a way. We'll make it work. There's got to be a way.'_ He thought maybe when he got back, he'd bounce some ideas off Mercer and Storm Shadow.`   
  
` His thoughts were interrupted by the roar of a powerful engine, riding on a wave of rock music. He stepped off the porch just as Zarana cut the engine of her rented Trans Am, killing the Misfits CD coming out of the stereo. "Haven't seen this before." The dress was a swirl of pale blue and green silk, off the shoulder with a full skirt that ended just above her knees and a bow at the small of her back.`   
  
`"I picked it up at the mall, when we temporarily lost each other."`   
  
`"Ohh." He'd picked up something at the mall when they'd temporarily lost each other, too. He only hoped he'd have the courage to show it to her.`   
  
`She gasped as she saw the kitchen. "Blaine! You – you didn't have to do all this!"`   
  
`"What did you think I meant when I asked you over for dinner?" Then he winced, remembering that they'd been living on mostly junk food for the past 10 days. Pizza was about as fancy as they'd gotten. But she hadn't come over here tonight looking like this just for pizza.`   
  
`"Certainly not all of this. Thank you." She framed his face with one hand, keeping her other one clasped in his as she rose up on her toes to brush a kiss over his lips. He automatically tightened his other arm around her waist. "Dinner won't be ready for a little while yet. Would you like to dance?"`   
  
`"Yes, very much." `   
  
`He led her into the main room, where the candlelight and the moonlight combined to create an ethereal fantasy.`   
  
` _"Keep on try and cope_ ` __  
` Love will show the way`   
`Don't cry don't lose hope`   
`Love will show the way`   
`Nothin' can keep me from `

` _Findin' you_ ` _` love runs too `_

` _Deep to not come through_ ` __  
` Love will show the way`   
`Love will show the way`   
`Love will show the way."`   
  
`Zarana raised her head from where it had been resting on his shoulder. "I never would have figured you for a Jem & The Holograms fan."`   
  
`Blaine chuckled. "Blame my daughter Aislinn. She's 12 and she lives and breathes this stuff."`   
  
`She smiled. "You don't look old enough to have a 12-year-old daughter."`   
  
`"Oh, thank you. My son will be 15 next month and I was 37 two weeks ago. I needed to hear that." That made her laugh outright.`   
  
`"37! Good heavens, what an old man I'm dancing with tonight. So were you terribly sad when your first pet dinosaur died?" Her eyes danced with devilish humor.`   
  
`He leaned his head back to look at her. "How old are you, anyhow?"`   
  
`"Twenty-three."`   
  
`"No way, anyone with as much sass as you have has to be at least 25." He gathered her closer as the CD tray cycled around.`   
  
`They danced for, he guessed, about 10 more minutes before the kitchen timer went off. He was sorely tempted to let the whole thing burn to cinders, just to not have to let her go. But he had promised her dinner. He pulled away reluctantly, leading her into the kitchen.`   
  
`It had come as quite a surprise to Zarana that he did indeed know how to cook. He told her that after his divorce, it was either learn to cook, live on TV dinners and take-out, or starve.`   
  
`He poured the wine, delicate straw-colored liquid, out of an unlabeled bottle. "My Dad made this."`   
  
`"Really?" She took a sip, closing her eyes in delight. She wasn't a wine snob – couldn’t be, with the rotgut she usually drank – but this tasted like liquid starlight. "It's wonderful."`   
  
`Chicken in a light sauce, carrots dressed with herbs and lightly crisped potatoes, with berries and chocolate cream sauce for dessert. "Oh, I think I ought to have bought this dress an extra size up. Blaine, you can't mean to just leave the dishes!"`   
  
`"Sure I can. I always do." He grinned like a mischievous little boy. "Come on, let's dance some more."`   
  
`The CD tray had cycled over into a Ronnie Milsap disc he knew his mother must have left behind the last time she'd been here. `   
  
`"How did it get `

`So late where did `

`The night go to`   
`Strange how it slips away `

`When I'm with you`   
`I know it's almost `

`Two I know you `

`Should leave but wait`   
`I've thought it over and`

`There's something I gotta say`   
  
`Why don't you spend the night `   
`Somehow it seems so right`   
`Why does it have to `

`End so soon please stay `

`'Til the morning light`   
`It's such a long way home `   
`And you'd only be alone`   
`Ah come on now why`   
`Don't you spend the night?"`   
  
`She lifted her head to look at him again, her heart in her in green eyes, and Blaine was suddenly very glad his mother had left that particular CD. He didn't think he could have asked her himself and made it come out sounding this good.`   
  
`"Maybe I spoke too soon `   
`And maybe my timing's wrong`   
`Or maybe it's something I`

`Shouldn't have said at all`   
`But when I look in `

`Your eyes I feel `

`Like we're almost one`   
`Ah something tells me the`

`Night's only just begun."`

` _‘Why Don’t You Spend The Night’_ ` ` – Ronnie Milsap`

` _‘Milsap Magic’_ ` ` – RCA 1980`   
  
` She leaned up to kiss him again, as his arms tightened around her waist. She was shy and uncertain, and he tried to calm her even as his own heart began racing. Willing her to feel everything that was in that heart, nevermind what stood between them outside the door.`   
  
`He pulled away, bringing his hands up to either side of her face, looking in her eyes. "If I kiss you again I won't be able to let you go. It's your call."`   
  
`"Don't stop. Kiss me again, and don't ever stop."`   
  
`He bent to sweep her into his arms and she laughed with delight. "Oh, I was hoping you'd do that. I was really, really hoping you'd do that."`   
  
`He smiled as she looped her arms around his shoulders. "Wait, do one thing for me. The wig, take it off, please."`   
  
`Without the least bit of argument, she reached up and pulled the wig off, and the stocking cap under it. Her short-cropped neon-pink hair was mashed down, and made quite an impression against the dress.`   
  
`"That's better." And he turned towards the stairs.`


	8. Miracles and Moonlight

**Chapter Eight: Miracles And Moonlight**

 

`"We said Goodbye` `in `

`Marina Del Rey I `

`Had a good time`   
`Was the last thing `

`I heard her say`   
`As I walked away."`

`_'Marina Del Rey'_`` --` ` George Strait`  
` _'Strait From The Heart'_`` -- MCA 1982`  
` **********`

  
` **June 1991** ` ****  
` Southern California, somewhere between Santa Barbara and the border`   
  
`Blaine climbed the stairs slowly, holding Zarana as if she were the rarest and most precious of treasures. In his mind she was. He couldn't even guess what he'd done right in his life to deserve her.`   
  
`In the master bedroom, moonlight splashed across the bed, making the sheets gleam silver. He'd thought about putting a few candles in here, then decided it would have looked too obvious, too planned. He hadn't wanted her to think that he'd planned for the night to go this way. He'd hoped – heck, he was a man – but he didn't want her thinking he was deliberately trying to seduce her.`   
  
`He set her down gently next to the bed, noticing immediately that she must have ditched her shoes somewhere on the stairs. He took her hands in his and noticed they were both shaking. It helped to know she was as nervous as he was – he thought the frogs in his stomach were gearing up to do the polka, even as the rest of him was set to explode.`   
  
`"Blaine?" He could read her thoughts in her eyes – _‘Please God, don't tell me he's changed his mind.’_ He gave himself a mental shake and pulled her close.`   
  
` "I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere." He covered her lips with his, feeling her arms curl around his neck. There was such a thing as seriously over-thinking the situation at hand.`   
  
`Then there was no more room for thinking anything as heat fanned through his body. Zarana shivered as he slid his tongue along the seam of her lips, but she willingly opened to him, moaning. He discovered he could still taste the wine, berries and chocolate, and something else that was uniquely her own. A taste he'd never be able to do without again. Lightning chased through his bloodstream, firing every nerve ending in his body. `   
  
`They were both trembling by the time he pulled away to explore along her jaw line and the curve of her neck. Sweet God, how could anything feel like this? He hadn't even touched her yet, not the way he wanted to, and he was already far beyond anything he'd ever experienced with any other woman. Behind her back he fumbled with the buttons on his shirt cuffs.`   
  
`"Blaine, Blaine." Her breathy pleas were evaporating his sanity, but a tiny thread of reason remained, latching desperately to the uncertainty in her voice. He pulled back, trying to hold the volcano erupting inside him.`   
  
`"Okay, okay. It's all right, honey. I don't want to scare you. It's just been so damned long, and I want you so much."`   
  
`She smiled without saying anything, a wealth of mysteries in her eyes, and he found he could slow down, could savor, could draw out the moment until they'd both gone mad. He brought his lips back to her neck, but gentler this time, not like a vampire. "Open my shirt."`   
  
`She brought her hands around to his collar, slipping one button free, then the next, then another until they were all free, finishing by tugging the tails loose from the dress slacks he'd worn in place of jeans. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the shirt off his shoulders and down his arms until it fell soundlessly to the floor. In the moonlight he looked like a statue, and she could see all the scars she knew, and others she couldn't imagine. She bent down, gently kissing every rip in his flesh, thrilling in his hoarse moan. Everywhere her mouth and hands went, it felt as if she were trailing molten lava, and he wondered if she realized she was crying, bathing him in her tears as well. He stood this as long as he was able, then finally pulled her back up when he felt himself teetering on the edge of madness. The silk dress became a torment, preventing him from more access to the softer silk of her skin. "Where's the zipper on this?"`   
  
`She grinned like an imp. "Try the bow." He reached around and tugged experimentally on the material, groaning as he felt her literally unwrap in his arms. "My kind of dress." He groaned again as he saw what was under it. Sky blue lace that hugged her body like a second skin. He shook his head as he lifted her, laying her back gently on the bed. Too bad it would have to go the way of the dress.`   
  
`She never once looked away as he wrestled out of the slacks that had fit just fine an hour ago, even though he could tell she was nervous. A quiet suspicion began whispering at the back of his passion-fogged mind. He could tell she was inexperienced, but was it just possible ... He came to the bed, laying down next to her and pulling her against him. Lace covered-breasts crushed against the wall of his torso, and her legs tangled with his. He propped himself up on one arm, using the other hand to tip her head back.`   
  
`"Zarana ... Just answer me one question, honey. Have you ever – “`   
  
`She cut him off with one short, sharp shake of her head. "No. No, I haven't. But for the first time in my life, I want to. With you."`   
  
`He groaned, gathering her so close a shadow couldn't have come between them. He closed his eyes as he absorbed the implications of the gift she was giving him. After a few minutes he pulled away, brushing a few strands of hair away from her face. Her eyes were jewel-bright in the silver light, her lips swollen from his kisses. "Hold on, honey. Just hold on to me." `   
  
`He laid her back, so he could watch her reactions, see what she liked, how she liked it. The hand that had held her chin traveled down her arm, feather-light, to her wrist then crossed to her waist and began going back the way it had come. Her breath was coming faster, the lace over her breasts shaking. "Shh, shh, it's okay." He bent to her, kissing softly. "It's okay, honey, don't be afraid of me. You know I'd never hurt you. I'm sorry I was so rough before."`   
  
`"I can't help it. I – I feel as if I'm flying apart. How can anything feel like this?"`   
  
`He smiled, then gently laid one hand over her breast, cupping a pebble-hard nipple in his palm. She cried out at the sensation, arching like a cat into his touch. A flush stole over her face as he slowly rotated his hand, loving her response. It was like holding lightning in his hands. The strapless bra closed in the back, three hooks that gave easily to his hand. "I'm not very – big.”`   
  
`"More than a handful's a waste." He dragged the lace away slowly, grinning as she bit her lip and choked off a tormented groan. She tangled her hands in his hair, desperately trying to hold him where he only teased. Her own body had become something she no longer recognized. "Blaine! Blaine, please! I – I can’t – “ She couldn't stand this, she really was going to fly to pieces ...`   
  
`Then his mouth closed over the point of one breast while his hand covered the other one, finding her all the woman he'd ever need. He smiled as he felt her nails dig into his shoulders, heard her kitten-like mewling. _'Careful, careful. It's all new to her. If you scare her now you'll lose her.'_ He gently suckled her, gauging her reaction in the way her hands combed through his hair, the soft, incoherent cries and jumbled sentences. He reached slowly for the fragile wisp of lace around her hips, the last barrier between them. He searched until he found the tiny knot of nerves that she'd never had reason to pay attention to until now. He stroked her through the lace, knowing he'd already brought her close enough that it wouldn't take much ...`   
  
`She went rigid in his arms, her hands clenching in his hair, crying his name helplessly, her voice going breathless when he moved his hand just so and the pleasure impacted a second time.`   
  
`He couldn't breathe, he could barely think. He cradled her against him, praying he could control himself long enough – and then she looked up at him, green eyes drunk with pleasure, and he was lost. He pulled at the lace, feeling it tear in his hands as his mouth covered hers. She was still trembling with her aftermath as he covered her with his body. "Zarana, honey, I can't – I can't wait." He couldn't even tell her. He was dying and he couldn't even talk.`   
  
`"Please, Blaine. Make me yours forever." And she wrapped herself around him, arms and legs and heart and soul.`   
  
`He tried to go slow, pushing gently into her tight, damp channel, feeling her body shudder around him. She was so small, he was almost afraid she wouldn't be able to take him. And there it was, resistance. An unmistakable, almost impassable tightness. He could see the sudden fear in her eyes. His woman, his warrior. Oddly, his mind flashed back to battle, when Zandar had laid over his bike and she'd turned hers, roaring back through murderous crossfire to reach her brother.  There had been no hint of fear in her then.`   
  
`He blanketed her, lowering his chest over hers as he framed her face with his hands, keeping her eyes locked with his. With one quick stroke he was through. He could feel her quick intake of breath, but she didn't cry out. He closed his eyes on a groan as he slid home. He kissed her until he felt her begin to respond again, seeking forgetfulness for her and forgiveness for himself.`   
  
`He knew when he began to move that she hadn't realized she could feel more than he'd already given her. She gasped once, and he kissed her again.  "Shh, lie still. Let me do all the work."`   
  
`He'd thought himself on the point of explosion, but from somewhere he found the patience he needed to make it last a little longer. He rocked slowly against her, teaching her, waiting for her. As she dug in again, her hands trying to find purchase on his sweat-slick shoulders. As her hips began jerking erratically, trying to match his easy rhythm. He kept the steady pace, letting her find the way. He knew when she had it by the way her legs tightened around his waist, by the low, "Oh God," in his ear.`   
  
`He smiled down at her, seeing all his future in her eyes. This was going to be better than anything he'd ever imagined. He quickened the pace, exulting in her quiet moan, in how she almost instantly followed him.`   
  
`She was moaning on nearly every breath now, whimpering, tangled up with that kitten-like sound that made his blood fire even hotter. Her breath sobbing out as she began to toss her head back and forth, straining for something she knew she had to have or die, even as it terrified her.`   
  
`"Let it go, honey. Let it happen." His throat was constricted with the strain of holding back, of forcing himself to wait for her.`   
  
`"I'm scared. I can't – I can't control it. What I feel – I can't ... "`   
  
`"I know. I know." But he was burning to cinders now, and he refused to take this trip without her. Keeping the rhythm, he raised himself slightly, just enough to slide one hand between them, searching again.`   
  
`She could feel it coming, and all the fear in the world wasn't going to stop it. Her body erupted, feeling as if all the lightning in the world had just struck inside, catching her, tossing her into the heart of the sun. And he was right there with her, his breath, even his heart stopping for a moment as molten lava seared through him, incinerating him from the inside out. A heat that melted and bound them, changing them both forever.`   
  
`And giving them, in that moment of explosive pleasure, a gift it would take them years to realize ...`

  
`**********`

`Blaine opened his eyes slowly, assessing his surroundings. The sunlight on the wall told him it was mid-morning, and that his customary 20-mile run and workout weren't going to be an option today. If he didn't get that done before 7:00am, it didn't happen.`   
  
`No matter. If he didn't have a good reason for missing it today, he never would. He turned his head, nuzzling through tousled bright pink hair.`   
  
`"Hmmm. Morning. Wha' time issit?"`   
  
`"Dunno. Looking at the clock would mean moving, and I don't have enough energy left for that." He chuckled. "Guess there is something that can stop a Marine, after all."`   
  
`Zarana groaned. Men were men the world 'round. "I suppose that means you expect _me_ to get up and make the coffee." That worked, as she'd known it would.`   
  
` "Oh, coffee, yeah. Damn. Well, I guess we will have to get up, huh?" He propped himself up on one elbow, leaning over to look at her. They'd fallen asleep front-to-back sometime just before dawn, and he'd lost count of how many times she'd taken him to heaven. She rolled on her back, smiling up at him. "Hi."`   
  
`"Hi, yourself." He searched her eyes, looking for regret and thankfully finding none. The last thing he wanted was to cause her heartache.`   
  
`"Ummm ... " She looked away now, biting her bottom lip and blushing furiously, an interesting contrast to her hair. He dropped a kiss on her shoulder and hauled himself, reluctantly, out of bed. "How about I get breakfast going," Here he chanced a peek at the clock and winced. "Or more like lunch, and you get the shower first?"`   
  
`"Hmmm." She rolled over again, holding the sheets up to her collarbone, and he grinned at her delayed modesty. "Sounds good. I've got a ready bag in the trunk of the car, would you get it for me?"`   
  
`"Sure." He pulled on the pair of jeans he'd tossed over a chair the day before while he was dressing for dinner and went out.`   
  
`He never saw her roll back and bury her face in the pillows, her heart and mind in anguish.`


	9. The Cowboy Rides Away

` **Chapter Nine: The Cowboy Rides Away** `

` "We said Goodbye` `in `

`Marina Del Rey I `

`Had a good time`   
`Was the last thing `

`I heard her say`   
`As I walked away."`

`_'Marina Del Rey'_`` --` ` George Strait`  
` _'Strait From The Heart'_`` -- MCA 1982`  
` **********`

` **June 1991** `

` **Southern California** `

` **Somewhere between Santa Barbara and the border** `   
  
` Blaine rolled over in bed, his arm sweeping out and encountering empty sheets. He blinked awake in the darkness, coming up on one elbow. "Zarana? Honey?" The impression her head left in the pillow was still warm. Not gone long then. He pulled himself out of bed, intending to look for her.`   
  
`The bedroom window looked out towards the dock, and he could see her at the end, standing next to the Sea Ray, looking out at the water. He tugged on a pair of cutoffs and padded down the stairs.`   
  
`The past three weeks had been the best time of his life, but he was never more aware of the passing of that time. Three weeks was not very long when the world was turned against you. When the sun rose soon, their time would be over. Today was their last day.`   
  
`He stepped onto the dock and realized immediately that Zarana was crying. It wasn't loud sobbing, just a catch in her breathing. He could feel his heart tearing out as he walked to her, wrapping his arms around her waist above her jeans. She was wearing what he'd come to think of as her battle gear – the blue jeans with the hole in the left thigh, covered by the patch of pink spandex, and the ripped pink half-shirt.`   
  
`"Shhh, shhh. Don't cry, honey. We'll find a way."`   
  
`She turned in his embrace, wrapping her own arms tight around him, leaning her forehead against his shoulder in absolute weariness and confusion. "Oh God, Blaine. I don't know what's real or what's right anymore. I want to go with you so badly--I can't imagine having to face you after this. And I can't just shoot wide, they'd know. They'd all know, and I hear enough about you as it is." She turned her face to his. "But Blaine, they're my brothers. I – I can't just – they’re all I've got, I'm all they've got. I can't – “`   
  
`Blaine closed his eyes and tightened his arms, thinking of his own brothers – Cormick, Eachan and Guthrie – and how he'd feel if someone wanted him to turn against them. To turn back from all that was, just on a chance of what might be.`   
  
`He released Zarana suddenly, reaching around his neck. "Here, I want you to have this." Her eyes went wide as he unhooked the chain that held his Eagle, Globe & Anchor pendant. The Marine Corps insignia, the symbol of all he was, all he tried to be. He never took it off, not even to shower. She started crying again as he tenderly placed the chain around her own neck, so the pendant just brushed the slanted neckline of her shirt.`   
  
`"Blaine ... I can't take this, it means so much to you."`   
  
`"You mean so much to me, as well. You keep this, and someday when you're ready, you can bring it back to me." `   
  
`She sagged against him in utter defeat, love and heartbreak stealing the strength from her legs. Without a word, he swept her up and carried her inside, trying to ignore the way the sky had lightened behind the house.`

  
`**********`

`They stood outside a Dunkin' Donuts in Marina Del Rey. A COBRA safe house was a few blocks away, she'd go there to arrange a lift back to wherever her brothers were. He was going to Twenty-Nine Palms. She wouldn't look at him now. He took her face in his hands, kissing her as gently as he could manage when he wanted to use a Vulcan nerve-pinch on her, tie her up, and stuff her in his sea bag. "Remember that. Just remember that. We will find a way, Zarana. Someday. People just aren't given what we've been given just to lose it or have it taken away from them." He kissed her again. "Remember me." `   
  
`She pulled away before she completely lost control, turning for the Trans Am as he turned for the Jeep he'd rented. The last thing he heard her say before he closed the door was, "I had a good time..."`

`**********`

  
` _"We said Goodbye_ ` _` in Marina Del Rey ... "`_


	10. Rescue Missions

**June 2003  
Denver International Airport**  
  
Zarana woke up suddenly, when she felt the pressure change in her ears. She could see jagged peaks spearing into a crystal blue sky in the distance, and realized the plane was coming in to Denver. She yawned to pop out her ears, just then noticing the pain in her hand. She looked down to see that she was holding Blaine's pendant so tightly that one of the Eagle's wings had dug into her palm, drawing blood. She realized that she must have fallen asleep after the plane left Edmonton, sliding into a dream about the idyllic three weeks in California with Blaine, when Zoya had been conceived.  
  
"Here, let me help you with that." The cowboy in the aisle seat pulled a bottled water and a bandage out of his bag.  
  
"Oh, thank you." She fixed her hand, then used some of the water to clean the Eagle.  
  
Zarana looked up as the 737's wheels touched down, heralding their arrival. Now all she had to do was clear Customs, and make her flight to LA. She turned to hand the bottle back to the cowboy. "Thanks."  
  
"No problem." Cormick Parker reached up to touch the brim of his Stetson, glancing surreptitiously at the pendant. That had once belonged to his brother, or he'd go vegetarian for a month. So Blaine's lady was alive after all. Now what to do? He decided to go for a direct approach. "So, are you staying in Denver or moving on?"  
  
She favored him with a smile, and a lie that was almost the truth. "Moving on. I'm on my way to Hawai'i, first vacation in 11 years." She gathered her things as the **'Fasten Seat Belts'** sign blinked off and people up front began leaving their seats. "And you?"  
  
"Just passing through on my way back to Arizona. Be nice if there was such a thing as a direct flight from Edmonton to Phoenix, but I guess that would make too much sense."  
  
Phoenix, Arizona. Blaine's hometown. "Thanks again for the bandage."  
  
"You're welcome." Cormick reached up to tap the Stetson again as they parted ways, then went looking for a pay phone.  
  
Zarana headed for Customs, glancing back once at the cowboy, then shaking herself. Jumping at shadows. She knew it was Hawai'i she needed to go to. Zartan's note had said _"Come to Paradise."_ How many nights had she lain awake, listening to Zandar fantasize about having a little place on the island of O'ahu? He only needed a little more money, he'd say. Just enough so that Zartan couldn't push him around anymore.  


 

##########

  
**Scottsdale, Arizona**  
  
"Are you sure she said Hawai'i?"  
  
"Positive. Didn't say which part, though, just Hawai'i."  
  
Blaine sighed. "Thanks, Cormick. Good eyes, man. Did you notice what she was wearing?"  
  
"Yeah. Jeans and a Calgary Flames sweater, with a Flames ball cap turned around backwards. She has dark honey hair, French braid. Real long, past her waist."  
  
Blaine rubbed his forehead. "Thanks, give me some idea what to look for."  
  
"Good luck, Blaine. They're calling my flight. I'll see you when you get back. Any word on Scurry?"  
  
"No, nothing yet. Keep praying."  
  
"Always. Gotta go."  
  
Blaine hung up, then looked at the three men gathered in the room. "That's a hell of a leap, Mainframe." Mutt had arrived from New Jersey late last night, with Junkyard 4.0 in tow. The dog, as is a Rottweiler's way if nothing is going on, was curled up on the floor asleep.  
  
"Yeah, but it fits. The last place I remember crossing swords with Zartan is O'ahu. And the note says _'Come to Paradise'_." He reached for the phone. "That's still Torpedo's stomping grounds, right?"  
  
"You couldn't dynamite him out of there. Last I heard, ol' Sparks had landed there too."  
  
Blaine was reaching for the phone when he heard a door open and close. "Dad?" Aislinn stood in the doorway in her Arizona State Patrol uniform, looking at her father, Dial-Tone, Leatherneck and Mutt. It had been some years since she'd come home to find men in fatigues in her house. "Dad? What's going on?"  
  
Blaine scooped up the picture of the child from the table. "Meet your sister. I'm going to Hawai'i to find her."  


 

##########

  
**Honolulu**  
  
Tired, dirty, hungry, thirsty and perfectly miserable, Zoya leaned against the wall in a seedy pool joint, listening with half an ear while Zartan haggled out a drug transaction. Over two weeks had passed since he'd taken her, most of that spent in a haze. He'd kept her sedated to make her easier to handle. He'd also kept her on a collar and leash.  
  
Over in the corner was a man trying to get her attention, but she was bright enough not to make eye contact. Several men had made offers for her, which Zartan always declined. She was his property only, no negotiations.  
  
Zoya felt like she was going to be sick. That Zartan's feelings for her mother had gone far beyond 'brotherly love' didn't bear repeating. He'd wanted to kill his sister for giving away something he'd believed belonged to him – herself. Deprived of his original target, he'd shifted his obsession to Zoya. The final countdown hadn't arrived yet, but Zoya knew she'd be damn near helpless when it did.  
  
The man in the corner was getting persistent, bending over in his seat to catch her eye. He was about the same height as Johnny, which made his posture ludicrous.  
  
Finally, he succeeded, looking her square in the face. She saw a tall man with brown hair and moustache, wearing jean shorts, a red Hawai'ian shirt and a Detroit Tigers ball cap. He gave her a reassuring smile, then lip-synched, _'Hold on. Hang in there. Help is coming.'_  
  
Zoya glanced at her uncle, then back at the man, just in time to see him walking out the door. But he'd delivered his message. She sat down, allowing herself a slight grin.  


 

##########

  
**Somewhere in the American Midwest**  
  
David Carter glanced up as Mulan's Hummer screeched up outside the barn, then went back to what he was doing.  
  
"Hey, Mulan MacArthur. You ever gonna tell me what the license plate means?" On either end of the Hummer was a plate – **QKS ANGL**.  
  
"Not in this lifetime." She waved a hand at the alien aircraft David was working on, which filled most of the wooden structure. "Can that thing get 5 people to Hawai'i in a very big hurry?"  
  
David looked up again. Mulan was dressed in what looked like loose black pants and a high-necked black swimsuit with a back cutout to allow her arms freedom of movement. That effect was ruined by the black leather double shoulder holster that held two gleaming nickel-plated .45-.70 Desert Eagle automatic handguns. Slung across her back was a rig to hold two samurai swords. A white headband with Asian symbols was wrapped around her head, and her long black hair was tied back in one flat French braid. Her blue eyes glittered with purpose.  
  
"You and who else?"  
  
"Me, Ashley, Johnny, Derek and Kevin."  
  
"You sure you need to go to Hawai'i?"  
  
"As sure as Aidan Scott can be."  
  
David's tip-tilted blue-purple eyes scanned down the length of the trangula. "I'm in. Only because you'll need a pilot. Ashley doesn't know how to handle this thing as well as she'd like. When do we leave?"  
  
"Ashley gets off work in an hour. Be ready or she's flying, whether she likes it or not."


	11. All At Once Now

**Somewhere over the American Desert Southwest**  
  
David held his hands over the controls of the trangula, breathing slow. Ashley was in the copilot seat. The others were over at the comm station, talking to the contact in Honolulu that Le Van Hawke – a former resident of the Lost Children's House – had dredged up out of nowhere.  
  
"I would have tried taking the guy on myself, but I didn't have any backup, and I'm not 19 anymore."  
  
"Just as well you didn't, Mr. Magnum. Zartan's had extensive ninja training. At least we know Zoya's alive, in one piece, and we have some idea where to start looking. Thanks again."  
  
"Anytime. My friend TC runs an air-charter service, in case you need transport once you get here."  
  
Mulan slanted a glance at the back of David's head. They sure as heck couldn't be flying around O'ahu in this thing! "That would be greatly appreciated. We'll also need hangar space in which to store our own aircraft. It's just a little too conspicuous."  
  
"Here's TC's phone number then … "  
  
Mulan broke the connection, then viewed her assembled assault team. "Well, I guess that's all we can do for now. We've got air and water transport now, we'll have to arrange ground when we get there. Maybe Mr. Magnum's friend will have a Jeep or something we can borrow."  
  
Water transport had come in the form of Derek's 70-foot Sea Ray. Since he knew his mother and stepfather weren't in Hawai'i this time of year, the boat would be theirs.  
  
"Wave good-bye to sunny California." David called out. "ETA to O'ahu, about two and a half hours."  
  
Mulan walked over to the armor-plastic view screen and watched the LA Metroplex vanish. _'Hold on, Micro-Snake. Just hold on.'_  
  


##########

  
**Somewhere nearby ..**.  
  
The 757 out of LAX, and the private jet taking off from an abandoned airstrip hidden in the desert outside San Diego gained the sky within five minutes of each other. Although both planes were aware of the other’s presence in the sky, neither had any idea that they were on the same mission, nor neither had any clue of the alien craft streaking ahead of them, one they had no hope of catching.  
  
On the 757, Zarana leaned her head back, wishing desperately that she could sleep. God knew she'd need it. It had been a very long time since she'd had to face off against her brother. Time he'd spent refining his craft, while she'd been hustling drinks in Yellowknife. She looked down at the pendant cradled in her hand.  
  
 _'God, please don't let me let Zoya down again. But if I do, please don't let me let her down and live.'_  
  
On the private Lear, Blaine likewise wished for sleep. He was equally as determined to rescue his daughter – and find out what had become of her mother, even if he had to strip every square inch of skin off Zartan's body to get the creep to 'fess up.  
  
He was also slightly better prepared. He and his team had managed to smuggle some very interesting items out of SanD – things that weren't supposed to be allowed on planes anymore – and hadn't for a long time. He had been the King of the Wise-Asses back in the day, but sometimes then again it really paid off to know a crafty old rascal like Hector Delgado. He'd gotten everything they'd needed, no questions asked, found the airstrip, and transported the stuff from SanD to the plane. They now had enough firearms and explosives to start a medium-sized war. Better still, Hector knew a guy in Honolulu who could off-load said supplies without attracting unneeded attention.  
  
Junkyard 4.0 watched with sympathetic eyes as Blaine looked at the picture of the girl. She had his eyes, her mother's chin.  
  
He'd called his mother shortly before they'd taken off from Sky Harbor in Phoenix. The message had been short. "I'm going to Hawai'i to pick up your granddaughter. I don't know how long it will take. I love you and I'll see everyone when I get home." He knew the plane wouldn't have cleared the Arizona / California border before Mary Kate Parker would have been on the phone to the entire Parker clan.  
  
"Hey, Mainframe, get some sleep, man. You need to be sharp when we get there. Zartan's gotta know we're coming." Leatherneck's voice growled out of the darkness.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
In the cockpit, Slip-Stream watched his controls, adjusting slightly to make sure he avoided the jumbo jet on the same destination. Something wasn't right on that radar scope, it was picking up something funny just barely in range ahead of them both, but he couldn't see anything visually. Whatever it was, it was moving damn fast.  
  


##########

  
**Honolulu**  
  
Zoya didn't want to know what it meant that the people in this neighborhood had stopped staring at the collar and leash around her neck. Nobody even looked once as Zartan dragged her around.  
  
"Home sweet home, my dear." Zartan grinned at his prize as he unlocked the door, ushering her inside.  
  
She recognized it. The dream house Zandar had finally managed to buy after years of dreaming. The few good memories of her life with the Dreadnoks were in the five-bedroom split-level. Her room had been in the finished basement.  
  
Two half-starved Dobermans looked up and snarled menacingly, their eyes glowing with an unearthly greenish light.  
  
"They're zombies, you see." Zartan's mood was conversational. "I wouldn't try attempting to make friends. Zeus, Apollo, this is Zoya. Your job is to guard her."  
  
As Zartan led her down the basement stairs, the dogs followed, and Zoya could feel their empty, dead eyes boring into her back, all but daring her to try to escape.  
  
Outside, a red 1976 Ferrari 308 GTS slowed down long enough for the driver to copy down the house number and the license plate of the green Chevy. As he peeled out, one of the Dobermans inside cocked an ear. Had that engine sounded familiar somehow?


	12. Frustration

**Honolulu: Day Three**  
  
Mulan walked into the guesthouse of the estate where Thomas Magnum lived, and flopped disgustedly on the couch. "This is crazy. This island only has a land mass of 600 square miles, and believe me, we have crawled through every rat hole contained therein! I know Zoya's not a very big person, but a guy Zartan's size leading an 11-year-old girl on a leash shouldn't be this hard to miss!"  
  
Ashley didn't even bother with the couch, she just dropped on the floor. "What was that guy's name on your side? Didn't you have a Hawai'ian guy? I think he was a SEAL?" Due to her youth, Ashley's knowledge of G.I.Joe wasn't as extensive as she would have liked.  
  
Mulan slapped herself on the forehead as Thomas retrieved a beer from the mini fridge. " _Torpedo! I-Am-An-Idiot!_ Where's the phone? Hey, Magnum, you know an Eddie Leiahola?"  
  
The tall PI rolled his eyes under the bill of his Tigers cap, in amused contempt. "And wish I didn't. He kicked my six in the Ironman last year. Don't bother with the phone, he runs a diving school not far from here. Let's go."  


 

**********

  
**Heavy Water Diving School**  
  
Eddie looked up as the Island Hoppers van and Jeep rumbled to a stop. What, ol' Thomas back for more abuse? Then he saw Mulan drop out of the Jeep's driver's seat. "Torpedo! I need your help, man. This is serious."  
  
"Wait. Stop right there." He walked a slow circle around her as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, a child impatient with adult slowness. "Who gave you permission to grow up?"  
  
"Who says I ever grew up? I just got taller, that's all. 'Pedo, I'm not kidding. There's a girl who's been kidnapped by Zartan – “  
  
"And I'm already helping her Daddy try to find her. How did you know?" Eddie looked around at Thomas. "You in on dis?"  
  
Broad shoulders shrugged under a glaringly hot-pink shirt with multicolored parrots splashed across it. "The nephew of an old friend of TC’s called and asked if I'd look into the situation."  
  
" _'Nephew of an old friend of TC’s.’_ Yeah, uh-huh, sure, right." He looked at the sun, which was on the edge of being swallowed. "Look, Mainframe and the guys should be here soon, we do most of our looking at night. How about we join forces?"  
  
"That sounds great. So far we're getting nowhere alone, and the longer Zoya's in that monster's hands … " Mulan shuddered. "And I know because that pack of wolves Zartan used to run with dropped the kid in my hometown the same day the _Columbia_ went down. I've been keeping an eye on her, while trying to track down Mainframe." She turned to Ashley. "Call the guys and tell them to meet us here."  


 

**********

  
**Sugar Shack Restaurant**  
  
Sparks could not believe his luck. Nearly a week of nothing, and now Zarana herself had dropped into their laps. She'd ditched the jeans and Flames sweater in favor of a surfer suit, but she'd kept the Flames ball cap. Dial-Tone stationed himself near the bar as Slip-Stream slid into an alcove across the crowded, dimly-lit room. Zarana didn't know it, but she was surrounded.  
  
They'd picked up Ace, now a civilian pilot, at the airport. He'd brought in a Hawai'ian Airlines 757 the same day they'd landed. And the name _'Carol Weebler'_ had been on the passenger manifest. That was the alias Zarana had used to infiltrate Joe HQ all those years ago. After hearing what was going on, Ace had signed on in a heartbeat.  
  
So now there were seven of them – eight, if you counted Junkyard 4.0 – sliding through the shadows of the biggest pick-up joint on O'ahu. Sparks knew you could get everything from crystal meth to anthrax to AIDS in the place. They'd smuggled the dog in by slapping a service-dog harness on him, and stuffing Mutt into a borrowed wheelchair. Whatever worked. Sparks activated the hands-free mouthpiece on his cell-phone. He Who Was In Charge was still at a bar down the street, arguing with the bouncer.  
  
"Mainframe, this is Sparks."  
  
 _"Yeah, go ahead."_  
  
"Me and the guys are in the Sugar Shack. No sign of Zartan or the kid, but your lady just took a table by the restrooms. Further down the hall from those there's a back door."  
  
 _"Keep her there. I'm on my way."_  
  
Making sure he had everyone's attention, Sparks pointed to Zarana, then the floor. She stays.  
  
For her part, Zarana was exhausted beyond the point of collapse and nearly the point of tears. She didn't know how in the world she was going to locate her daughter. She'd run through very nearly all of her money, bribing bouncers and barkeeps, all of whom seemed to develop immediate and complete amnesia at the mention of Zartan's name. Unless she cashed in her return tickets to Yellowknife, she'd be sleeping outside and eating out of dumpsters by the end of the week. She looked up as a waitress stopped by her table. "Oh, just a cold beer and whatever's on special. Labatt's or Molson, if you've got either."  
  
The fifteen-if-she-was-a-day waitress allowed as how they carried Molson Ice, then sauntered away. Zarana fought the urge to lay her head on the tabletop and simply never wake up again. As she sat there with her eyes closed, she didn't see Mainframe hit the door like a runaway tank. "Where?"  
  
Leatherneck had been watching the door. He pointed across the room. "Right there, she just got her beer. Sheeze, at least let her have dinner before you go dragging her out of here. She looks half-dead."  
  
As he walked to the table, Mainframe had to admit Leatherneck was right. Even through the haze of several different kinds of smoke, he could see that Zarana's skin was far too pale, and there were deep rings under her eyes. His heart twisted inside him as he appropriated a chair from the next table. She was staring into a Molson Ice, trying to drum up the energy to actually pick it up.  
  
Someone gave the jukebox in the corner a good swift kick.  
 _  
"Met you in a cafe at  
A table meant for two  
You were sitting by  
Your lonesome when I  
Sat down with you  
You tried hard not  
To show it but I  
Couldn't help but see  
That you wore your broken  
Heart out on your sleeve  
And your loneliness could not  
Disguise the beauty and the charm  
Thought if I ever get you  
Shattered lady in my arms."_  
  
 _Rock You Baby_  
Toby Keith  
 _Unleashed_  
DreamWorks Nashville 2002  
  
Zarana's head snapped up and her eyes went wide as she realized who had just sat down with her. Her mouth moved, trying to form words while her brain struggled to get into some kind of gear.  
  
"Blaine … "


	13. Together Again

**Honolulu: Day Three  
Sugar Shack Restaurant**  
  
"Blaine ... "  
  
Zarana's mind was spinning with more than exhaustion now. Alive. He was alive. Sitting across from her in a bar in Honolulu that didn't even deserve the dignity of the word _'dive,'_ wearing jeans and a #4 Craig Counsell Arizona Diamondbacks jersey, with an AZ St. Sun Devils ball cap. Gently pushing her Molson Ice aside, he reached across the table.  
  
 _'Her hands are like ice,'_ was his first thought, before the sheer electricity of her touch temporarily blanked his mind. It had been so damn long … His heart felt like it was going to explode. A tear slowly traced its way down her cheek.  
  
"Blaine, help me. I don't know what to do … "  
  
"It's okay, honey. We're together now. Zartan beat us because we let ourselves get separated. He can't take both of us at once. We're going to take him down – HARD – and we're going to get our little girl back."  
  
Zarana bit back a sob. **We’re** going to take him down. **Our** little girl. A fragile candle of hope flickered to life inside her. That had been her one major fear that if they ever did find each other again, that Blaine would hate her, would blame her, accuse her of abandoning their child. But here he was, looking at her with those same gentle steel-gray eyes as he had 12 years ago. Like nothing had ever happened.  
  
A plate clattered on the table, breaking the moment.  
  
"Eat your dinner, then we'll get out of here. You look about ready to die on your feet."  
  
In the corner, Sparks rolled his eyes. Oh, now **that** was romantic. Even Beach Head could have done better than that! Hell, even Polly the Parrot could have done better than that!  
  
The meal could have been ashes and rocks for all she noticed, and when she tried to stand up the room tilted alarmingly as everything inside her seemed to say _sorry, Zarana, we've just had enough._ But Blaine was there to catch her long before she hit the floor, and for a moment she was suspended in space, her forehead pressed against his shoulder seeming to be her only solid connection to Earth. "I'm sorry." was all she could think of to say.  
  
Blaine shook his head. When all this was finally over, and they were all safely back in Scottsdale, they really had to do something about this woman's self-esteem. He'd noticed in California that she seemed to have this problem about thinking she was interrupting someone else's life – a cracked mirror she'd been looking into for so long, she didn't realize anymore that there was any other way to be. Zartan had a lot to answer for.  
  
For now, however, he simply bent slightly to swing her up in his arms. That got her attention a little. "Blaine … I'm not … you'll hurt … "  
  
"And if I was planning a 50-mile hike through the Amazon rain forest, you'd probably have to fend for yourself. As it is, 36 feet to my Jeep wasn't a problem." He set her down enough to open the door, then slid her into the seat. The guys were piling into the van they'd borrowed from Torpedo. Dial-Tone jogged across the parking lot. "Just got a call from 'Pedo, he wants us to head back to the school."  
  
As they pulled away from the restaurant, a figure detached itself from the shadows between a brick wall and a dumpster. Zartan turned to his captive.  
  
"So there. You've seen your parents together once. Enjoy the once, my dear, for the next time you see them they'll be dead."  


 

**********

  
**Heavy Water Diving School**  
  
Ashley saw the Jeep first, and recognized the woman in it. She let out a Tyrusian battle cry designed to raise the hair on the back of a corpse's neck, then followed it with, "One down, one to go, we're halfway home!"  
  
Zarana stared at Ashley as though she were seeing a ghost, and Ashley had forgotten that Zarana was one of the few people from her old life who knew her alien name. And the fact that she was from _somewhere else_.  
  
"Aceah?"


	14. A Night Apart

**Honolulu, Night of Day Three  
Marriott Waikiki Beach  
Suite 1308**  
  
Blaine gently set Zarana down on the bed, she was nearly asleep. They'd all agreed at Torpedo's to wait until tomorrow to continue the search. That way, they'd avoid having to spend a night at the hospital, as Zarana looked about ready to collapse from sheer exhaustion. Thomas Magnum had arranged for his friends Rick and TC to stake out Zartan's house, and without saying anything to anyone, Ashley and Mulan had headed that way themselves. Blaine had checked Zarana out of the fleabag no-tell motel she'd been staying in (even in Hawai'i, there were fleabag no-tells), and brought her here. His 'team' – Ace, Slip-Stream, Dial-Tone, Leatherneck, Mutt  & Junkyard 4.0 – was split between Torpedo's apartment and Sparks'. The guys who'd come with Ashley and Mulan stayed on the 70-foot Sea Ray moored at the diving school.  
  
Blaine didn't like having everybody scattered around the city, but Mulan had reasoned that it increased the chances of someone spotting Zartan and Zoya. And since she knew what his own daughter looked like better than he did … _'Stop that,'_ he told himself. _'Be grateful Zoya had someone to watch out for her.'_  
  
Zoya. Zoya Gayle Parker. Zarana had made sure their daughter knew her father's name, if nothing else. Ashley had told him about the letter Zandar had written, that they'd found in Zoya's things. Blaine now shared Dial-Tone's suspicion that Zandar's **accident** had been anything but. The only hole to fill in now was how Zartan had kept up on things, even after his supposed death.  
  
"Blaine … " Zarana's eyes felt as if they had lead weights attached. She was lying on her side as he tried to unfasten the surfer suit.  
  
"Shhh, honey. It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. But I won't let you sleep in this thing. Where's your Flames sweater?"  
  
She managed to lift her head. "In my blue bag. But, how did you know I have a Flames sweater?"  
  
He shrugged. "I could say I've got the sight, or I could say I guessed because you've got a Flames cap. But you know me better than that. The cowboy you sat next to on the flight from Edmonton to Denver is one of my younger brothers, Cormick. While you were on your way to your next flight, he was looking for a pay phone to call me."  
  
That got her awake enough to lean up on one elbow. "But how did he know it was me? We barely spoke, and I've never met him before. The only reason I thought of you at all was because he said he was going on to Phoenix, and I knew that's where you were."  
  
Sighing, Blaine pulled her close, resting his head on her shoulder. Her dark honey hair – hers, not a wig this time – tickled his face, and he realized he couldn't wait to see it loose. "Where's the pendant I gave you? You had it in your hand that day, that's how Cormick tagged you. He knew it was mine."  
  
She sagged slightly. "It's in the front pocket of my belt pack. But Blaine, the chain's broken."  
  
He pulled himself off the bed, rooting through her bags until he found the patchwork leather belt pack. He unzipped the front pocket and dug out the pendant. Sure enough, the chain was snapped about two inches to the left of the clasp. He cradled it in his hand as he returned to the bed. "I'm betting Zoya was wearing this when Zartan grabbed her. The chain would have broken when he yanked it off."  
  
"Oh God. Blaine, you don't know what he has in mind, what he'll do to her." She gave a heartbroken moan. "What he might already have done."  
  
"He hasn't done it yet. He wants both of us there, wants to make us watch."  
  
Zarana recoiled as if she'd been slapped, then shuddered. "He – he wanted me. Like a brother shouldn't want his sister. When he found out I was pregnant, he flew into a blind rage. I'd given away something he believed belonged to him – myself. Zandar managed to get me into hiding until Zoya was born, and he paid dearly for it. Zartan stripped him of second-in-command of the gang, and gave it to Buzzer. Zandar was reduced to nearly the level of a slave."  
  
It was exactly what Blaine had suspected, but it still made him sick to hear it. He'd already figured out that Zartan's actions weren't merely because Zarana had betrayed COBRA in general or the Dreadnoks specifically, simply because she'd fallen for a Joe. There had to be something more. He tightened his arms around Zarana. "He won't hurt Zoya until he knows we can see it. That means she's still safe for tonight. Now you really need to get some sleep. It won't help our family reunion if you pass out at her feet."  
  
He continued trying to get her out of the surfer suit, and now she cooperated. He made himself look away as he pulled the Flames sweater out of her bag and then tugged it over her head. The next time he touched her in passion, he wanted two things – that she be coherent and that they be in Scottsdale. A few rushed moments in a hotel room with her barely conscious wasn't his style.  
  
"Don't leave me." Her voice was a bare thread of sound, a lost child, helpless and alone.  
  
"I'm not going anywhere, I just need to change." He ditched the jeans and Diamondbacks jersey for cut-off blue sweats and a blue t-shirt that proclaimed him as a Proud Navy Father, with a picture of an F-18 Hornet. He killed the lights and tugged the drapes closed. He could just barely make out her eyes as he came back to the bed.  
  
"Which one's in the Navy? And for how long did you disown them?"  
  
He winced. "My oldest, Calhoun. And I didn't disown him. Although I **do** take every opportunity to remind him that they fly Hornets in the Marine Corps, too. For all the good that does me. My darling baby sister Finola snuck him in to see _Top Gun_ when he was 10 years old. He got one look at the Navy dress whites and that was it for him."  
  
Calhoun Parker who was an F-18 Hornet pilot in the Navy … Why did that sound familiar? And then it hit her. "Oh God, Blaine. Not the same Calhoun Parker that was shot down over Iraq last month?"  
  
"The very same. Calhoun went MIA, and then Zartan snatched Zoya. So there's two gaping holes in my family. The difference is, Zoya I can do something about. Calhoun, all I can do is wait and pray, and try not to think of all the names on that black wall in DC from the war I fought in. Names of guys I actually knew, that I can put faces to."  
  
She turned in his embrace, wrapping her arms around him and holding on for all she was worth. Some people came back from wars with scars on the outside, and some people came back from wars with scars on the inside.  
  
"Do you know what Zoya Gayle means? I chose her name carefully, I didn't just make it up out of thin air."  
  
"Tell me what it means."  
  
"Zoya means _'life'_. And Gayle is a variation of Abigail, which means _'my father rejoices'_."  
  
He tipped her head back, and gently, so gently, laid his lips over hers. "Thank you. And I'm gonna rejoice an awful lot more when I've got her and her Mom safe back home in Scottsdale, Arizona." He pulled her closer, pressing her forehead into the pocket of his shoulder. "Which means her Mom **really** needs to get some sleep."  
  
Smiling, Zarana finally allowed herself to close her eyes for the first time in three days. Blaine stayed awake in the darkness a few minutes more, just long enough to send one more prayer winging up on behalf of one lost Navy fighter jock. Then he too slept. And in sleeping, dreamed of them all together – he, Zarana, Calhoun and his family, Aislinn, his youngest son Teague, and Zoya. They were in the pool section at Bank One Ballpark, and Zoya was fighting her older brothers for the home run Craig Counsell had just dropped in the water.


	15. The Pain of Payback

**Honolulu: Day Four**  
  
Zoya's eyes blinked open in the predawn light. Wow, she'd never had a dream that vivid before. It had all felt so real. She'd been at a big ballpark with her family – her  parents, Scurry, some other people she didn't recognize yet but knew she was related to. They were sitting next to a swimming pool, and a ball was coming at them. A long, soaring home run that splashed directly into the water. She and Scurry both dove, joined by another, younger man. Another brother, maybe? If she closed her eyes she was right back there. The smell of the freshly mown outfield grass, the feel of the cool water as it closed over her head, the sound of the roaring crowd as the lucky hitter rounded the bases, the taste of the extra-long chili-cheese dog she'd just scarfed down, the sight of Scurry's face, grinning, distorted underwater as he reached for the ball.  
  
And then she'd woken up. She looked not into the face of her brother now, but at a pair of gleaming green eyes in a gaunt black-and-tan face. The one with the blue bandanna was Zeus, the one with the red bandanna was Apollo. She pushed herself up on one elbow, rubbing her eyes. She'd discovered she could, after some fashion, communicate with the animals, at least enough that they wouldn't tear her to shreds if she moved enough to use the little girl's room, which was what she needed right now. "Okay, dog, I need to use the loo, so if you could please get out of my way at least that much?"  
  
The dog got out of her way that much, and once out in the open basement where there was enough light to see by she could tell it was Zeus. That meant Apollo was out on patrol around the house.  
  
Zartan was flopped half-on-and-half-off the foldout couch in the living room, lost in his own private Idaho. If it weren't for the blasted dogs, she'd have tried a run for it.  
  
As she exited the bathroom, Apollo came in through the dog door, woofing quietly at Zeus. Zoya supposed it was zombie-doggy-speak for, "Your turn." Sure enough, Zeus ducked outside, and Apollo followed her back down the stairs.  
  
Outside, in a half-wrecked delivery truck, Ashley poured water on a rag and used it to wipe her face and neck. "Was Thomas sure he saw Zartan use the front door that first day?"  
  
"As sure as he could be." TC checked the monitoring equipment. "And Thomas doesn't make mistakes like that."  
  
"Well, he's not using the front door to go in and out anymore." Mulan grimaced at the half-flat soda she was drinking. "A tunnel maybe? Looked like there were a lot of empty spaces in that industrial park not far from here. What did you call those open-air green chopper things?"  
  
"Swampfire. Hell, even I can fly one. And it would be his style."  
  
Rick Wright groaned. He was getting too old to get dragged along on Thomas's wild-goose chases. "Well, our equipment isn't sophisticated enough to detect that kind of thing."  
  
"Mine is." Ashley began gathering her things. "Let me go roust up David, we'll go to TC's place – Keys? Thanks. – and we'll come back here." She slid out the side door of the truck, which was on the side facing away from Zartan's house. To get to where Mulan had stashed the rented Jeep, she'd have to walk right by it.  
  
And oh, wonderful, the bigger of the two zombie dogs was out on patrol. She reached behind her back and pulled out her alien sword, called a _zi-nor_. It looked, as Chandra Van Marks had once said, more like a giant straight razor than a Klingon _bat'leth_. She'd heard somewhere that zombies could be defeated by beheading.  
  
 _'C'mon, Zoya, at least look out the window. Let me know you're here.'_ But there was no sign of the younger girl, and the big Doberman was watching her much too intently to risk running up to the house and peeking through the drapes, zi-nor or no. She knew she should have brought an _arbus_ along, instead of leaving them all with David in the Sea Ray.  
  
And now she was past the house, and getting into the Jeep.  
  
Zeus flipped his ears. The scent of the girl herself was unfamiliar, but overlaid over it were two scents he knew very well indeed – Rick and TC. They were in that battered white truck across the street. So maybe Thomas again soon?  
  
Zartan didn't know it, but his hold over the two Dobermans wasn't as strong as he thought. Their true master, Jonathan Higgins, had a half-brother who was a priest. Once, while Jonathan hadn't been looking, Father Paddy had sprinkled some holy water over both dogs, then winked and said, _"Now, we won't be tellin' Jonathan about this, will we?"_ As a result, Zeus and Apollo still held some semblance of free will. It was also why Zoya could talk to them.  
  
The house was over 25 miles from the diving school, and for some utterly perverse reason, Hawai'i only had one country music station, which was only local from 0600 until 1400 every day. This was why Ashley had hauled her entire Jem  & The Holograms collection, and made sure Mulan rented a Jeep with a CD player. Without looking, she slipped a disc into the player, smiling when she heard the music come up. This was the CD in which a few of the orphan girls Jem knew had been invited to be guest vocalists, and this was one of Ashley's favorite songs – perhaps because her own father had been so far the other way.  
  
 _”A father should be a good man_  
A father should be wise  
A father should be tall and strong  
With laughter in his eyes  
  
Ooh a father should be behind you  
Ooh a father should be there  
Ooh a father should be someone  
Ooh who always treats you fair  
  
I know the kind of man  
I know the kind of man  
A father ought to be  
A shining knight who  
Fights the good fight  
And wins it just for me  
  
A father should be a hero  
Ooh a father should come through  
Ooh a father should be someone  
Ooh someone just like  
You just like you.”  
  
Ashley shook her head, wondering idly how different her and Zoya's lives would have been, if only someone had taken an interest in them early on, instead of leaving them to fend mostly for themselves.  


 

**********

  
**Heavy Water Diving School**  
  
"Hey! Anybody up yet?"  
  
"Yeah!" Derek Holden popped his head out. "Hey Ash. Any news?"  
  
"Plenty," She stepped aboard. "All bad. David alert yet?" In Ashley’s dictionary, _‘Awake,’_ _‘Up,’_ and _‘Alert’_ meant three distinctly different concepts.  
  
"He's alert. After five cups of coffee, believe me, your royal sovereign is definitely alert. I've never seen anybody who can put away coffee like you guys."  
  
"Hey, it's good. Morning, Your Highness." David Carter was the true prince of Ashley's home world.  
  
"Hey, yourself. What's doing?"  
  
Ashley outlined Mulan's suspicion about a tunnel, and her own suggestion about using Tyrusian tech to search. "As long as we've got all this stuff, we might as well use it for something good."  
  
David stopped himself from pouring a sixth cup. "We should have been using our stuff all along, then we'd be home by now. Okay, let's go. Someone call around and wake everybody else up."  
  
"Got it." Johnny, for one, was very grateful for the alien technology. What was called, simply, a Holographic Concealment Unit was making him look like a ‘normal’ human.  
  
As Ashley and David pulled away from the school, heading for the airport, neither noticed the taxi idling in front of a bar across the street.  
  
"Yeah, they're moving. Firefly's kid and some guy. 6'1” or 6'2”, about 180. Black hair and blue eyes, wearing jean shorts and a Patriots Super Bowl shirt. Follow?"  
  
The woman clicked off the phone and shifted the taxi into gear. Once, a lifetime ago, she had been Cheryl Parker. Now she liked to be called Payback. And she was the link.


	16. Disaster Attacking

**Honolulu: Day Four**  
  
"Good freakin' grief." David made a hasty Sign of the Cross as he saw the Doberman round the corner of the house. "We should have brought Blue. I could slap an HCU on him, make him look like another Rottweiler."  
  
Ashley shook her head, sable-dark hair sifting around her shoulders. "No way. We had enough trouble explaining the _trangula_ , I'm not explaining Manglers."  
  
"Some warrior you are."  
  
"A warrior who's dating a guy whose mother, uncle, grandfather and great-uncle are Marines. What was that _'discretion is the better part of valor'_ thing?" Ashley cast one last glance at the Doberman as she and David circled around the delivery truck. "You did grab a couple of _arbuses_ , though, right?"  
  
David held up a red duffel bag with white straps and **GHS** stenciled on the side. "Enough for everybody."  
  
Mulan looked up as they came in. "What happens," she said to nobody in particular, "if you get a traffic violation in a rented car thousands of miles from home?" A sideways way of saying Ashley had gotten there-and-back so fast she must have been speeding.  
  
"If you've got the computer skills I do, you hack into the Honolulu PD database and erase the ticket. Now let's get this stuff run up, so we can see if Zartan's got a tunnel under that place. Bets?"  
  
Payback grinned maliciously. "Yeah, they're in that white van across the street. The dogs give Firefly's brat the willies. I'd take Zoya and get gone if I was you. I'm heading back to the Marriott now."  
  
The taxi trundled down the street, earning no more notice than a, "Get lost, you." from Mulan. After it cleared the liquor store two doors down from Zartan's house, a decrepit mid-1970s blue Ford Pinto hatchback swung out to follow it. Payback had unknowingly pissed off someone worse than herself.  


 

**********

  
**Marriott Waikiki Beach**  
Suite 1308  
  
His cell phone playing the Marine Hymn woke Blaine, and he snatched it up hoping it wouldn't wake Zarana.  
  
"Yeah. Oh, thanks Johnny. Yeah, we can get there in about half an hour. Thanks." He closed the phone and turned to the woman on the bed, who had just pushed herself up to sit, shoving at the hair that had escaped her braid over the course of the night. "Time to get up, that was the boat crew. Ashley rousted them out not long ago, Mulan had a brainstorm."  
  
"Ummmm." One claim Zarana had never attempted to make for herself was that of a morning person. If she didn't have to work, she could flounder about in bed until past 0900 – later if she couldn't readily see a clock. Now she forced herself to get moving. There would be plenty of time for lazy after they rescued Zoya. She reluctantly turned away from the bed and ran smack into Blaine. "Oh, sorry." She looked up as his arms came around her, steadying her.  
  
"Morning's still not your best time, huh?"  
  
She smothered a large yawn against his shoulder. "Uhn-uh." And despite the urgency of the situation, it still seemed so inviting to simply rest her head on that shoulder and drift away for a few more precious seconds.  
  
Then the window looking out over the crystal blue water of Hawai'i exploded.  


 

**********

  
The Pinto slewed around sideways in a maneuver it had never been designed or intended for, everything including the death's-head gearshift knob screeching in protest. Betray desperately guided the car around, entreating a God she'd given up on when she was 12 to keep it together just a little longer. Payback's taxi had more power, but it was bigger and much heavier, being armored. The little Ford had no weight but itself. Betray hoped that would make up the difference. She followed Payback on a mad chase through the streets that rivaled any TV or movie pursuit, while trying not to think about that WW2 movie where John Wayne's wife was having an affair with another officer, and they were coming back from an illicit rendezvous when the Japanese attacked. Their car had plunged off a cliff and burst into a ball of flames. This little rattletrap was prone to fiery eruptions all on its' own. Then Payback misjudged her turn. A 2-1/2-ton truck, the American military's jack-of-all-trades 'deuce and a half', pulled through a green light at 10 miles over the speed limit, neatly T-boning Payback on the driver's side.  
  
Betray stuck around just long enough to make sure Payback wouldn't be bothering anybody else ever again, then did her best Dale-Earnhardt,-Sr.-At-Talladega act hauling ass.  
  
As they loaded her 'body' into the coroner's van, Payback allowed herself a smile, shielded by the body bag. Zartan had taught her how to make herself appear dead, even to the experts.  
  
 _'You'll get yours, Blaine. Very soon, you'll get yours.'_


	17. Discovering Betrayal

**Somewhere on Hawai'i State 93**  
  
Bound and gagged with duct tape on the floor of a depressingly mud-brown early-1980s Buick Skylark sedan, Zoya moved her head just enough to see a pair of road signs flash by upside-down and way too fast.  
  
 **Ka'ena Point State Park  
Makua Military Reservation**  
  
Huh? That didn't make any sense at all. Granted, from what she'd learned while they'd been here, O'ahu seemed to be just one gigantic American military base – which made it even weirder that anyone in her mother's family wanted to get caught downwind of the place **at all** – but under the circumstances, wouldn't any military installation or personnel be exactly what Zartan would be doing his best to **avoid**?  
  
The sound of the phone had jolted him out of wherever the drugs had taken him, and he'd heeded Payback's suggestion to get gone, hustling Zoya and the dogs out through a tunnel in the storage room to a car hidden in a nearby industrial complex. Payback had been supposed to meet up with them later, in a place called Makakilo. But it seemed Payback had jumped the gun. She'd used a shoulder-mounted RPG launcher to try to kill Zoya's parents in her father's hotel room, and then had been killed in a car wreck while escaping.  
  
So how come a very-much- _alive_ Payback had been hitchhiking in Pearl City? And Zartan was NOT happy that Payback had fouled up his little chess game.  
  
"I told you very specifically how this was supposed to play out, Payback."  
  
"Yeah, you did. And if we kept to your timetable, Zoya would be out of high school by the time we got through. You also promised me results."  
  
Zoya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. After all this time, Payback still believed anything Zartan said? Mulan was right, some people were just plain born stupid. She tested the tape around her wrists, searching for an out. After they'd picked up Payback, Zartan had stopped behind a closed-down gas station and stripped Zoya out of her red shirt and green shorts, leaving her in her yellow-flowered tank top-style undershirt and panties. There was now a doomsday clock counting down in her head.  
  
She took a deep breath through her nose, looking at the dogs that filled up the back seat while she lay on the floor. If she had to. Only if she had to. She figured Zartan would have to untape her ankles to do the deed, and the first chance she got, this time she would run. If the dogs caught her and tore her to shreds, dying beat being raped.  
  
Betray hung back in traffic, always keeping one or two cars between herself and the Buick. Knowing Payback would be looking for it now, she'd ditched the Pinto and picked up an early-1980s silver Ford LTD, one of the last of the full-size four-doors. Between the Pinto, Zartan's Skylark and this, it was a horse race as to who was driving the bigger junk pile. At least this car had a V-8 with some juice under the hood – she’d about torn the heart out of the Pinto's V-4.  
  
Betray held no warm feelings toward Zoya, and didn't care one way or the other if the kid was reunited with her parents, died, or what. She just wanted Zartan's head on a stick, his ass in a sling, his man-parts for a hood ornament and his hide for a throw rug. Then she was going to get nasty.  
  
Zandar had been the one person in a lifetime of misery that she could trust, the one person who never let her down. Family, friends, community – all had let her down. A family of two faiths had used her as a chess piece. Her schoolmates had measured her worth in terms of her father's job – and told her they found her wanting. The teachers who declared her _'emotionally disturbed'_ and _‘learning disabled'_ had taught her that her worth was cheap. The town she'd grown up in had expected her to know her place and keep to it, accepting what she was given and never asking for more than she had a right to. Her own mother treated her like the live-in unpaid servant help, a foundling left on the doorstep and taken in under Christian charity, expected to work for her keep. Even her sister, nine years younger, had acted like she was taking up valuable money, food, water, air, space. Then the company her father had slaved for for over 20 years had thrown him out like last week's leftovers. At 18, demoralized, degraded, angry at everyone and helpless to do anything about it, imprisoned by a small New England town that didn't even realize it had built its' own cage, she'd gone down to the open-air mall in the nearby city and eventually wandered down to the lakefront. Sitting there astride his chopped-up Harley was a wild, laughing, rebellious 25-year-old knight in tarnished armor. She hadn't even let him drive her home long enough to pick up a change of clothes. That had been 10 years ago.  
  
Now Zandar was gone.  
  
Betray would never know what had gotten into Monkeywrench, but he'd let her go through some of Zandar's things, pick over what was left of his bike for parts, before the gang had given Zandar their version of a Viking funeral, burning his body, his bike and his possessions on a giant pyre. The Baroness had noticed that Betray hadn't cried. _"The tears I cried for my grandfather when I was 12 said all I had to say."_ had been her reply.  
  
Buried inside what had once been the brake assemblage of the bike were the remains of a small explosive device, likely remote-controlled. Zandar had confided to her his plans to return Zoya to her father. Somehow, Zartan had found out.  
  
Betray didn't care about the kid, but she had loved Zandar.  


 

**********

  
**Heavy Water Diving School**  
  
Mulan paced. It was what she did when she was seriously pissed, she said it helped her think. Torpedo wisely didn't mention that on the rare occasions he'd seen Snake Eyes seriously pissed, the man had been pacing. At least until something or someone that could be pounded on had appeared.  
  
They'd found the tunnel all right, and the warehouse, even the Swampfire chopper – hidden under a couple of COBRA tarps. But no Zartan, Zoya or dogs. Then Ashley's cell phone had rung. It was Johnny, bearing news of the explosion at Blaine's hotel. By some major miracle, neither Blaine nor Zarana were seriously injured.  
  
But the already-high stakes had been raised.  
  
Ashley looked at Ace and Slip-Stream. "I don't suppose you guys could go over to Hickam and get your hands on a couple of your old rides?"  
  
The two men exchanged looks. Oh, it was so tempting. They could each see their thoughts in the other's eyes. How long? How long had it been since they'd felt a Conquest or a Skystriker in their hands? Then reality intruded. It had been that long, and this wasn't exactly the middle of noplace.  
  
"It's been too long, and there's too much chance of civilian casualties around here." Ace shook his head. "I managed my entire military career without getting caught in a JAG courtroom, I'd like to maintain a perfect record in my civilian life."  
  
Ashley rolled her eyes and made a pffft-ing sound. "My cousin Jason is the Navy JAG's yeoman. He knows these two great lawyers."  
  
"We're both Air Force." Slip-Stream replied in his dry Utah drawl. "We've got no use for squids or jarheads."  
  
 _"Aaawwwrrrggghhh,"_ Ashley rolled her eyes again, in perfect teenage frustration with the way adults seemed to enjoy making things more difficult than they really had to be.  
  
"So Zartan had a mole." David was checking and re-checking his supply of _arbuses_. There wasn't enough room in here for two people to pace, so he fiddled with the Tyrusian firearms that looked like what would happen if a flashlight and a staple gun got together and had kids. "Someone following us or something that we didn't catch … " He looked up as Mulan screamed in frustration and threw a diving tank air-pressure regulator clear across the room.  
  
"THAT DAMN TAXICAB! It had to be that damn taxicab! It crossed the street in front of Zartan's house about 10 minutes before we went in! I didn't notice it at the time because I was so busy helping you guys get the scanning equipment run up! I am the biggest idiot in three countries!"  
  
Zarana retrieved the pressure regulator and handed it to Torpedo, scanning the immediate area around Mulan for anything else the younger woman could toss.  
  
She remembered the mission with the robot subs, when she'd first met Blaine. She'd tried knocking him over the head with a wrench and stabbing him with a screwdriver, only to have him take both tools out of her hands like he'd been expecting her to hand them to him. When she'd tried to strangle him, he'd kissed her. How could you fight someone like that?  
  
"Okay, Mulan. Nobody's perfect." Blaine silently wished for Quick-Kick's ghost to appear, the kid looked like she was on the edge of a meltdown. "Zartan got one up on us, now we've gotta get it back." He stopped as Mulan gave him an 'I-Know-What-You're-Up-To-Mister' look.  
  
"Mainframe, this isn't the ninth inning of Game Seven of the National League Championship Series against the Giants, with two outs, a three-two count, down by two with two men on. So skip the major-league manager inspirational speech, okay?"  
  
The door banged open to reveal a Honolulu PD lieutenant. Thomas groaned.  
  
"Nolan, this is a real bad time … "  
  
"Not you I'm looking for today, old friend." Lieutenant Nolan Page scanned the crowd of people, his eyes flicking only briefly over the .45-.70 Desert Eagles that Mulan made no attempt to conceal. With her back to the wall, he couldn't see the samurai swords. "I'm looking for a Blaine Parker."


	18. A Ghost of a Chance

**Honolulu: Day Four  
Heavy Water Diving School  
**  
Everyone seemed to freeze, even the air didn't breathe. Blaine stepped forward, meeting Lt. Page's eyes. "I'm Blaine Parker."  
 _  
'Put a Marine in civvies and he looks like a Marine in civvies.'_   Page nodded.  "Are you related to a Cheryl Parker?"  
  
Blaine groaned inwardly. Just what he didn't need right now ... "I was, she's my ex-wife. We've been divorced since 1983. Why, what has she done this time?"  
  
"A taxi was seen driving away from the Marriott Waikiki Beach at a high rate of speed immediately after the grenade attack on your room, Mr. Parker. A blue 1975 Ford Pinto hatchback followed it until a 2-1/2-ton truck outside a produce market broadsided the taxi across town. Your ex-wife's body was removed from the taxi, but disappeared from the county morgue approximately 45 minutes after arrival. We found the Pinto abandoned behind a Home Depot."  
  
Mulan's groaning, "I knew it." was drowned out by Blaine's explosive, "What do you mean **disappeared**? What'd she do, just get up and walk out?"  
  
Magnum hung his head as Page shrugged. "For lack of any better explanation. I plan on going back to the morgue and having a 'Come To Jesus' meeting. I was just wondering if she had contacted you, made any demands."  
  
Blaine sighed as Mulan began chivvying her friends into gathering up their things. "No, Lieutenant, Cheryl hasn't contacted me. Yet. If she's involved in this in any way, I'm sure she will. Here, let me give you my cell phone number. If Cheryl calls me I'll be sure to let you know."  
  
Page nodded. "Fair enough. Hey, Thomas, tell Higgins I'm over my quota for fixing parking tickets this month. Fire hydrants exist for a reason, and if he can't see around the fenders of the car to know the hydrant's there, he needs a smaller car."  
  
"Okay, so here we go again." Mulan dragged out the map of O'ahu that had been new a week ago but was now fraying around the edges and taped together in one place. "Six hundred hundred square miles, and so far the only thing we know is where Zoya **isn't**. Damn, we should have brought Aidan with us."  
  
"Or that screaming black monster of a helicopter Rad and Annie have." Ashley mentioned two other residents of the Lost Children's House and the wildly souped-up Bell 222 Jet Ranger they kept hidden in the barn. "That Swampfire will fly, and I can fly it, but Zartan's gotta know we have it now."  
  
"Better check it for a self-destruct device first. Damn, I hate this. We know they don't have the taxi or Zartan's green van anymore."  
  
Zarana came over to join them, looking none-too-steady on her feet, and her face looked like February in Alaska. Kevin Kerner snagged a stool and held it for her.  
  
"They at least got prints out of the Pinto that was following Blaine's ex." She looked at Ashley. "Did you ever meet an Amber that might have run with the gang?  4'11", maybe 95 pounds, blonde hair and hazel eyes?"  
  
Ashley's eyes narrowed then went wide. "That sounds like Zandar's girl! He picked her up somewhere in New England, when Zoya was about a year old. I was only about 7 then, and Firefly kept me away from the Dreadnoks as much as he could, but that sure sounds like Betray."  
  
"Oh, there's a name." Derek shook his head as Ashley began to retrace Mulan's pacing, squeezing her high, deep temples as she went. The temples were a trait of her and David's people – some of whom could pass for human, some who couldn't. "I'm trying to remember – Zartan had a woman, her and Betray got along like two cats over a clothesline, I know that as well as my own names … After Zartan 'died,' she hooked up with Monkeywrench – “  She grinned at the look on Zarana's face. "Yeah, surprised the hell out of everybody else, too. I'd have bet good cash Monkeywrench didn't sway that way, I thought him and Torch were like this." She crossed her fingers. "Anyway, what the hell was her name? Awrgh! Something weird, I know she was **such** a bitch – AND THAT'S IT! Payback, her name was Payback! Oh I hated her, she was right down there with Baroness on my list."  
  
"Anybody got an Uzi?" Derek slanted a glance at Kevin, who'd spent 15 years of his life in Israel.  
  
"Uzi’s are illegal here." Kevin replied coolly.  
  
"This whole damn thing is illegal!" Johnny rolled his eyes. "Okay, in lieu of Aidan, anybody got a Ouija board?"  
  
"Are we that desperate?" David wanted to know.  
  
"YES." From both Ashley and Mulan.  
  
In the corner, a shadow moved within shadows, casting doleful eyes at Zarana. How to tell her? He couldn't speak to her! This being dead business was very confusing. Zandar sighed. There had to be a way! He scanned the room, finally spotting one of those spinning t-shirt racks, filled with shirts Torpedo sold on the side. He floated over, rifling through the shirts. And there was a **Ka'ena Point State Park** shirt! Idea! Okay, time to do this ghost thing, and hope for once he got it right!  
  
"Whoa! What the hell? 'Pedo, kill the A/C, man!" Mulan looked up as the temperature in the room plummeted from Hawai'i to Alaska in five seconds.  
  
"The air-conditioning broke down back in April! Watch out!" A t-shirt rack started spinning wildly, rocking back and forth. A neon green shirt flew off the rack and landed in a heap in front of the stool Zarana was sitting on. That quickly, the rack stopped spinning and the temperature went back to normal.  
  
"Umm, okay, what was that?" David eyed the shirt like he might watch a rattlesnake. Glancing at Page, then shrugging, Mulan unsheathed one of the swords, poking at the shirt. "Looks normal enough." She bent down and flipped the shirt over.  " **Ka'ena Point State Park**. Where's that, 'Pedo?"  
  
"About 40 or so miles from here. You think this is something?"  
  
Mulan slid the sword back into place. "I don't think this shirt came flying over here by itself, just when we're trying to figure out where the Hell Zoya is!"  
  
Blaine stalked over and grabbed the shirt. "It's more than we had a minute ago. Let's **go**. How long should it take us to get there, Torpedo?"  
  
"If the traffic's right, maybe a little less than an hour."  
  
Everybody began scrambling for his or her things. "Somebody's got the clothesline and duct tape, right?" Ashley snagged her _zi-nors_ off a tabletop.  
  
"Five rolls of each." Johnny replied as he charged out the back door, heading for the Sea Ray. The boat would probably get there faster than the cars.  
  
Zarana stopped in the doorway to take one look around the room. A last cool breeze swirled around the t-shirt rack.  
  
"Zandar?"  
 

 

##########

  
**Ka'ena Point State Park**  
  
Zoya groaned behind the tape, coming up out of another drug-induced sleep. She shifted her feet experimentally – nope, still taped. Payback had asked Zartan why he didn't do it while she was under. He had replied that he liked his women awake and aware. Zoya didn't know what to think of the fact that Payback seemed to be fully aware of what Zartan planned to do, it didn't bother her, she wasn't going to stop him, and she still slept with him.  
  
There was something deliberate in Payback's dislike of her that Zoya knew, as if her very existence had personally ruined some vital aspect of Payback's life. She seriously hoped it wasn't jealousy. Payback had never, ever liked her.  
  
Zoya looked around, wondering where Zeus and Apollo were. Zartan couldn't have taken them with him, wherever he'd gone. Their green eyes were a dead giveaway, and he had to be afraid she'd try an escape without them watching her. If she could get her hands around a good-sized piece of volcanic rock, she could use it to cut herself free – it was pretty sharp stuff. She looked around as much as she could in every direction, finally spotting Payback lying nearby. She was lying on her side, with her back to Zoya. _'Probably passed out from the drugs or something. Where **are** those dogs?'_ As odd as it sounded, she'd gotten used to them being around.  
  
A rustling noise from behind her caught her attention and she craned her neck around, eyes widening when she saw Betray crawling on her hands and knees through the underbrush. The woman never once looked in Zoya's direction, glancing only once at Payback.  
  
"You may think you're a bitch, lady, but I'm something else again."  
  
For as long as Zoya could remember, Betray had been Zandar's woman. Not even the most charitable soul, however, would have hung the title _'aunt/surrogate mother'_ on the petite blonde. In Betray's mind, Zoya had simply been her man's orphan niece, no more. Betray had shown her souped-up '75 Pinto more affection than she had the child who was always underfoot. The only difference between Payback and Betray had been that Betray had never been physically violent towards Zoya. Oh, she'd yelled quite spectacularly a few times when Zoya, in childish innocence, had messed with her things, but she'd never struck the little girl. And, Zoya recalled, the times Payback had hit her Zandar had reacted immediately. Now Zoya figured that Betray hadn't wanted to lose the one good thing that had ever happened to her. Closing her eyes tightly, Zoya struggled to contain the tidal wave of misery that slammed into her. For some reason, ever since Zartan had kidnapped her, any thoughts of Zandar made her want to cry.  
  
Where was Betray? Oh, there she was. A sudden shocking though sliced through Zoya's mind, a memory of Rad Hawke arguing with Dale Dax, back in the Lost Children's House, while they were doing laundry. They'd been arguing about a girl named Tammy, who Rad liked.  
  
 _< < "She'll only bring you unhappiness." Dale had pronounced  
  
"Then I'll be unhappy." Rad had seemed unconcerned.  
  
"Come on, Rad. She's involved in events around here. Our survival is our secrecy. You start getting involved with a good town girl like Tammy, you'll bring trouble to the front porch." Dale shook his head at his friend's stubbornness.  
  
"Dale, you know what she's been through. She's very nearly down to Nothing Left To Lose. And it's not a long fall from there to Nothing Left To Live For. I just want to make sure she never gets there." >>_  
  
Nothing Left To Lose. Betray was certainly there. Nothing Left To Live For? Zoya looked at Zandar's woman as she hid herself in the brush again. Could Betray be here looking not so much for a chance to avenge Zandar, but hoping that if she did engage Zartan or Payback in combat, that she'd lose? Would she try to lose deliberately, simply to be reunited with Zandar and the child they'd lost?  
  
It had been sheer good luck that Zoya hadn't been with Zandar the day he'd gone over. Betray's Pinto had gotten out of the shop a week earlier, and Zandar had insisted Zoya ride with her until they reached Arizona, instead of taking her customary place on his bike. Had he somehow foreseen his own death?  
  
Abruptly, Zartan returned, Dobermans in tow. Zoya tensed, surely the dogs would pick up Betray's scent and alert Zartan to the presence of an interloper. But surprisingly, they didn't. After a little perfunctory snuffling around, they flopped down on either side of Zoya, acting as if nothing at all was amiss.  
  
 _'My head must still be fuzzy from whatever he's keeping me doped up on. What is_ **with** these dogs? Aren't they supposed to warn him or something?'  
  
Zeus yawned just then, showing off his long, toothy mouth. He and Apollo had indeed detected a new scent. But since it wasn't a scent they'd been ordered to look for, and it wasn't Thomas, they weren't getting concerned.


	19. Cliffhanger

**Honolulu: Day Four**  
  
"Okay, _**Makua Military Reservation**_?" Ashley snapped her head around as the sign whipped by. "Keeping in mind that O'ahu is just one giant American military base – which means considering how deeply the Dragit's forces have infiltrated that military means me and David shouldn't even **be** here – wouldn’t anything within sniffing distance of a military installation be exactly what Zartan should be trying to stay away from?"  
  
"You'd think." Mulan downshifted, trying to keep Blaine's Jeep in sight. "Jeez, Mainframe, it's not gonna help if you get busted for reckless driving before we even get there."  
  
"Or if he rolls the damn Jeep." Leatherneck was trying to ignore the fact that the green-eyed brunette in the shotgun seat was from another planet. There was just too much to deal with already. He reached for the two-way radio sitting on the console.  
  
"Hey, Zarana. Tell Dale Earnhardt up there to cool it. We all want to get there at the same time." The radio crackled, but it was Blaine's voice.  
  
 _"Tell Mulan to get her lead foot off the damn brake."_  
  
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Don't say stuff like that to someone who learned how to drive from her mom's uncle, the retired tank driver. Hang on, Leatherneck."  
  
Mulan cranked the wheel, and the Jeep jumped forward.  


 

##########

  
**Ka'ena Point SP**  
  
Betray shivered suddenly. What the heck? Whoever heard of Hawai'i being cold? She'd grown up in New England, had intimate personal acquaintance with 40 below, and that was what she felt like right now. Then she got even colder as she looked out from her hiding place.  
  
 _ **Zandar!**_  
  
There he was, standing just out of Zartan's line of sight. He looked like – she struggled for the right words – he looked like she was looking at him through a shower door, that kind of wavy glass. Her heart stopped, as he looked right at her, and held one finger to his lips. _Shush._  
  
Then he moved, stepping into Zartan's view. Zartan had been yelling at Payback, ordering her to go back to the car and get some blankets. Now he stopped in mid-sentence, staring at the ghost of the brother he'd killed. From behind the tape, Zoya made as much of a glad cry as she could. The Dobermans were going berserk howling, crouched around Zoya as if they were awaiting the order to attack.  
  
Zandar advanced on Zartan, walking a slow circle around him. Zartan stumbled over his own feet, trying to keep turning so Zandar couldn't get to his back.  
 __  
'While he's watching Zandar, he's not watching me!' Betray reached into her bag and pulled out a wicked-looking knife. The main blade was easily eight inches long, with four smaller blades spread out from the hilt. At the far end of the pommel was another small blade.  
  
Zartan turned so Zandar was forced to put his back to the dogs. Zeus sprang. He jumped straight through Zandar, whining at the shock of cold that swept through him, and flattened Zartan to the ground.  
  
"No, you fool! Not me, him!"  
  
Apollo lunged for Zandar's legs and ended up in tangled heap on the other side of Zartan and Zeus. Betray had never cared for Zoya, but she knew what Zandar would have expected of her at a time like this, and she knew what would truly piss off Zartan. She moved fast and low toward the girl.  
  
Zoya jumped a bit, craning her neck around when she felt Betray's hands on her ankles. "Jeez, hold still! I can butcher a bear with this thing!"  
 ****  
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Zartan got untangled from Zeus and dove at Betray. A wordless cry of rage strangled in his throat as Zandar's hands came around his waist. For a moment, just that moment, Zandar's arms were solid and whole. He picked Zartan up and flung him nearly 10 feet away. By then, Betray had sawed through the tape on Zoya's ankles and was moving toward her wrists.  
  
Betray had forgotten the Dobermans.  


 

##########

  
Payback nearly broke the key in the car trunk lock. How the hell had it gotten that cold that fast, at barely 1300? She flung the trunk lid up hard enough to nearly decapitate herself, and rummaged around inside. She wasn't looking around her, and therefore didn't see Leatherneck until his arms were around her, pinning her own arms to her sides and lifting her backwards off her feet. "Hello, Cheryl. Or would you prefer Payback?"  
  
Payback thrashed around, kicking out in an attempt to dislodge the big Marine. "You sonofabitch, let me go!" Her legs dangled over the open maw of the trunk and that quick, Ashley was there, closing the trunk lid until Payback's legs were on the verge of being crushed. "Hiya, Payback. Long time no hear from. Thankfully." She leaned on the trunk lid to apply more pressure, and Payback had to bite her lips to keep from crying out.  
  
Mulan moved forward, carrying a roll of duct tape and a roll of clothesline. She wrapped a strip of tape completely around Payback's head, then wove clothesline around her wrists. "Okay, let her up." Ashley released enough on the trunk lid to let Payback's ankles out. Mulan played out more line, wrapping it around the older woman's ankles as well, effectively hogtying her. She used one of the swords to cut the end of the line and tied it. Lastly, she wrapped another strip of tape around Payback's eyes.  
  
Payback screamed behind the tape as she felt herself being folded up and lowered into the trunk. The last thing she heard before the trunk lid slammed shut was her ex-husband's voice.  
  
"Hey, Cheryl. Remember when that jackass you were shacking up with locked the dog in the metal shed, because Calhoun left his dishes on the counter?"  
  
 **Thunk**  
  
Mainframe straightened away from the car, meeting Zarana's worried gaze. "Don't worry, I don't intend to leave her in there long enough for her to die."  
  
Ashley was digging into a duffel bag she'd tossed in the back of the Jeep. She pulled out a plastic zipper bag, with Zoya's king cobra t-shirt inside. She knew Zoya had been using it for a nightshirt, the week before she'd been taken. "Here, Junkyard 4.0. Come here and put your nose on this."  
  
Junkyard 4.0 obediently snuffled the shirt, then applied his blunt black-and-tan nose to the ground. After circling around for a few moments, he took off in a straight line into the vegetation.  


 

##########

  
Zoya rolled and pushed to her feet as one of the dogs howled. She spared a quick enough glance to see Betray yank her knife out of Apollo's shoulder. She glanced in the other direction to see Zartan and Zandar's ghost circling each other. Zartan's face was twisted with madness.  
  
"I don't know how you did that, **brother** , but you won't do it again."  
  
She waited until Zartan had his back to her, and took off running in the opposite direction as fast as she could.  
  
 _ **"NOOOOO!!!"**_ Zartan charged straight through Zandar, his rage blunting the shock of cold.  
  
Zoya didn't look behind her, concentrating only on the path ahead, hoping that somewhere between Betray and a ghost, she'd get away. She broke through the vegetation to emerge on a narrow path along a steep cliff, plunging down into the ocean. She stumbled on loose rock and caught a glimpse straight down. The waves at the base of the cliff were beating against piles of shattered and broken volcanic rock. And to think just a little while ago, she'd been wishing for a shard of it, thinking she could cut the tape. If she missed her footing on this cliff, it wouldn't be the tape getting cut.  
  
 ** _"COME BACK HERE!"_**  
  
She sucked in one deep breath and _moved_.  
  
Blaine followed the sound of Zartan's voice. They'd found the campsite, and Betray locked in battle with a pair of wicked-looking Dobermans, only a knife to her defense. Thomas Magnum had appropriated one of Mulan's swords and offered to stay behind. Too busy trying not to lose sight of Junkyard 4.0's no-tailed rump, Blaine hadn't given it much thought.  
  
Somewhere ahead, Zartan shouted, a sound that was almost immediately cut off. Junkyard 4.0’s baritone barking filled the silence.  
  
Gasping for breath, Blaine broke out onto a cliff top …  
  
 … And felt his blood turn to ice. Junkyard 4.0 was standing at the edge of the cliff, looking straight down and barking furiously.  
  
"Blaine?" Zarana touched his arm and he closed his eyes. He didn't want to walk up next to the dog. He didn't want to look down.


	20. A View to Die For

**Ka'ena Point SP**  
  
Derek slewed the Sea Ray around so hard he nearly capsized. "Damn!" Kevin, David and Johnny came at a run to see what had happened.  
  
"Oh, my God."  
  
Kevin eyed the sinister piles of volcanic rock. "How close can you pull up under that cliff?"  
  
Derek eyed the fish finder. Most of the time he didn't bother with the thing. All it did was tell you there were fish in the area. Didn't tell you whether they were biting or what, just told you they were there. But, it also told you where the bottom was. He began inching the 70-foot yacht forward. Slowly … slowly … closer … a little more …  
  
When his nerve finally failed him, they were still about 10 feet short of the goal. "Not close enough."  
  
Three mutants and one alien looked up from the cockpit of the boat, up that cliff face.  
  
Mulan and Ashley had come in from another angle, and nearly tripped over each other trying to stop. Since Ashley was hauling one of Zarana's old rifles – something else she'd appropriated a **long** time ago, along with the samurai swords Mulan carried – Mulan nearly lost an ear when the rifle's spinner blades went by her head. Junkyard 4.0 was barking so hard now he was shaking with it.  
  
"Junk! Break!" Mutt came up in between Ashley and Mulan and Blaine and Zarana. Nobody wanted to look down that cliff. The dog stopped barking, but stayed where he was, looking straight down.  
  
 _'This is crazy! Suck it up, Marine!'_ Blaine stepped forward on wooden legs, kneeling next to Junkyard 4.0, and then looking down. What he saw stopped his heart. Partway down the cliff, hanging onto a ledge that looked to about the size of his foot in a combat boot, with Zartan hanging on her ankles, was Zoya.  
  
She was looking straight up, so she didn't have to see the piles of rock beneath her, waiting to slice her to ribbons if she lost her grip. Below Zartan was the Sea Ray. Because of the rocks, Derek was about 10 feet shy of the base of the cliff.  
  
Blaine turned to Mulan. "Where's that clothesline?"  
  
"Right here." She passed it over, gathering her courage to look over the cliff as she did so. "Hey, Micro-Snake! This is almost over, kiddo! We'll have you back up here in no time! By the way, Matt says _‘Hi.’_ He's really worried about you. Don't take any offers until you grow up, you could do a lot worse than Matt!"  
  
She leaned over a little further, looking at Zartan. "Damn! You're **still** ugly! Especially right now! I thought you hated the sun?"  
  
Zartan's skin was dark indigo blue, and he was in obvious pain, despite whatever chemicals he'd pumped into his system.  
  
Blaine was wrapping the end of the clothesline around his wrist. "Jack, Wendell, come here. We're going to make a human chain, I need you guys to lower me down there."  
  
Ashley stared at Blaine with a perfect _'This Guy's Lost His Mind’_ look. "Pull her up, you pull him up, too." She actually pulled back three steps at the look on his face.  
  
"Yes, I know. I want to pull him up. Then I'm going to push him right back over, into all that nice, shiny, black volcanic rock."  
  
Mulan had unsheathed one of her swords, and was leaning over the cliff, turning the blade this way and that, so the sun would glint off the blade. "Careful, Mainframe. If the sharks around here start dying of food poisoning, the animal-rights people will come after you. Hey Zartan! Guess who Firefly's kid got this sword from! Remember how he doesn't like you much?"  
  
Zarana looked at Ashley, who shrugged. "Hey, I figure if they were that important, Storm Shadow would have come after me to get them back by now. By the way, are you gonna be wanting this back?" She passed over the rifle.  
  
"I won't ask how you got it without my knowing." Zarana hefted the rifle into position, checking the sights.  
  
"Good, because I wouldn't tell you anyway. Oh, and I had the spinner blades replaced with adamantium, so don't even rest it up against anything you're intending to keep."  
  
Leatherneck was really giving Ashley fishy looks now. First she's an alien, now she has access to a metal alloy most often associated with mutants? The world had gotten downright screwy.  
  
"Okay. Jack, you take me. Wendell, you take Jack." Blaine looked back down, trying to judge the distance. "Brad, Greg, stand by." Ace and Slip-Stream nodded as Dial-Tone and Leatherneck moved into position. Blaine turned as Zarana came up behind him. His face softened momentarily. "Don't worry, honey. I'm going to get her."  
  
She smiled, trying to blink back the tears. "I know." She took one step back and brought the rifle up, trying to catch Zartan in the crosshairs. She looked up and then back down twice, then lowered the rifle with a sigh of disappointment.  
  
"I can't, Blaine. The angle's no good. I could hit her just as easily."  
  
Mulan passed the sword she held to Ashley and unholstered one of her Desert Eagles, mimicking Zarana's action. She even dropped to one knee, and then flattened to her stomach, extending her arms down the cliff face – a potentially suicidal position, considering the handgun's almost arm-breaking kick. She scrambled back up, shaking her head. "No joy over here, either."  
  
Blaine dropped to his own stomach. "Both of you keep your weapons pointing down there, follow him as he comes up. In case he decides to try something cute on the way, I want him to know he's covered. Mutt, Torpedo, you guys take the other end of the line, and pull Zoya and Zartan up so they're above me. In case the line fails, I want to be able to grab Zoya."  
  
"Right."  
  
Blaine looked down as Dial-Tone grabbed his ankles, and started inching down over the cliff face. His own steel-gray eyes stared back at him; above the strip of duct tape she hadn't had a chance to rip away.  
  
Down, down, down. He glanced back once, to see that both Dial-Tone and Leatherneck were over with him, with Ace hanging onto Leatherneck's ankles and Slip-Stream waiting to move in. He looked back down, blinking and shaking his head against the salt spray from the waves that was stinging his eyes.  
  
Then something happened that had never happened before. For the first time in both their lives, Blaine and Zoya Parker's hands touched.


	21. Daddy's Little Girl

**Ka'ena Point State Park**  
  
As soon as Blaine wrapped his hands around Zoya's wrists, the girl let out as much of a shuddering sigh as she was able through the tape, closed her eyes, and momentarily rested her forehead against the cliff face.  
  
Then something unexpected happened. The ledge that Zoya was clinging to suddenly snapped off, dropping into the water below. Now, the only thing between an 11-year-old girl and certain death were the hands of a father she'd never known, and the three men forming a human chain above them. She began to panic, shaking, sucking in air through her nose like a hyperventilating dolphin. Blaine could read the fear in her eyes.  
  
"Hold on, baby. Just hold on. We're going to get out of this, I promise you."  
  
Zartan began to chuckle through his pain. "Still so trusting, Joe? You still believe things are all going to work out, don't you? Oh, so deliciously naive."  
  
"They will this time, Zartan. You're going down, in more ways than one. You might look down, if your stomach can take it."  
  
David, Johnny and Kevin had _arbuses_ pointing up the cliff, but they too didn't fire, unsure of their shots due to the rocking motion of the boat. But Zartan didn't need to know that; all he needed to know was there were now five firearms trained on him.  
  
"Still feeling cocky, you sick bastard? You're counting your future existence in minutes, possibly even seconds." While he'd been engaged in this bit of trash-talk, Blaine had shifted his grip. He looked at Zoya, lowering his voice. "Okay, baby. I'm going to pull you up a little, and I need you to catch on to my shirt collar. Can you do that?"  
  
Zoya nodded. _'Anything, Daddy. Anything at all you ask, I'll do. Just get me out of here.'_  
  
"Okay, here we go." In this position, and with the added weight of Zartan, it meant nearly pulling his arms out of their sockets, backwards, but he soon felt Zoya wrap her hands around the collar of his BDU shirt. As soon as she had a firm grip, he let go, just enough to wrap the clothesline around her wrists and tie it off. "Now, a couple of my old friends are going to pull you up, and Ashley, Mulan and your Mom will be up there when you get there, okay?"  
  
Zoya felt a hand of ice catch hold of her heart. _'He sounds like he thinks he won’t be there!'_  
  
Blaine correctly interpreted the new fear in his daughter's eyes. "Don't worry about me, I'll be right along behind you." He reached a little further back, and gave two sharp yanks on the line.  
  
"Okay, pull!" Mutt leaned back, feeling the drag on the line. Jeez, the kid couldn't weigh this much, ol' Zartan must have really been hitting the buffet places.  
  
Blaine waited until Zoya's hips were almost level with his chin, before shouting back for the human chain to start pulling him up. At this angle, Zartan's throat was nearly in range of his hands.  
  
 **SNAP**  
  
Just as Blaine had predicted, the clothesline broke, about 3-1/2 feet above Zoya. He could hear Zoya's strangled scream, even through the tape. His arms swept out, catching her just above her waist and holding tight. "It's okay, baby, I've got you. It's okay!"  
  
 _'I will not cry. I will **not** cry. I will NOT cry.'_ And if she kept repeating that, she could almost convince herself that she wasn't already crying, tears streaking down her face, almost choking because crying always stuffed up her nose and that was all the air she was getting right now.  
  
Zarana spared Ashley one quick sideways glance. "Aceah. As soon as Zoya's close enough, I want you to catch hold of that clothesline, and **take her away from here**. Take her back to the cars and wait for us there."  
  
"You got it." Ashley slid sideways between Zarana and Ace, dropping down to one knee. She reached into one pocket of her Marine Corps Force Recon utility belt, pulling out the temple piece that would allow her to focus and concentrate her mental abilities. She meant to catch hold of that clothesline, than use a sharp burst of telekinesis to pull Zoya into her arms. With any luck at all, that one quick yank would break Zartan's grip, and he'd go plummeting back down into the water and rocks. With any luck at all.  
  
The chain faltered momentarily, not having had the added weight of Zoya and Zartan before. Slip-Stream and Sparks quickly grabbed on. Feeling like an idiot, holding the loose end of the clothesline, Mutt turned to Torpedo, who had an equally frustrated look on his face. "Well, that worked great."  
  
Refusing to let any bad situation get him down for long, Torpedo shrugged. "Hey, look on the bright side, at least Mainframe anticipated it happening." But he did turn to glance over his shoulder. Thomas should have caught up with them by now …  
  
"Now! Catch her!"  
  
For once, something worked. Ashley grabbed the broken line and concentrated **hard**. Zoya felt herself being pulled towards Ashley with much more force than she thought should have been present, and then Ashley's arms were around her, and Zartan had lost his grip. Ashley turned and ran, half-carrying, half-dragging the younger girl, as fast as she could.  
  
But Ashley had used a little too much force, and Zartan was able to scrabble his way to the top – not that it got him very far, the first thing he encountered were the gleaming adamantium spinner blades on Zarana's rifle, and her jeering voice.  
  
"I wonder if Payback will think yer so ‘andsome if ‘alf yer bleedin' face isn't there anymore?"  
  
Ashley didn't slow down until she almost ran down Thomas Magnum. He was kneeling in the middle of the campsite, his head bowed over the samurai sword he'd borrowed from Mulan, the bill of his Detroit Tigers ball cap partially obscuring his face. As Ashley regained her balance, she could see beyond him the decapitated corpses of two Doberman Pinschers. She felt Zoya draw in a sharp breath. Thomas's voice was hushed, nearly a whisper.  
  
"I had to. I couldn't let them stay like this. Not like this. And they just stood there and took it. They just stood there. Even Apollo, even after he saw me – “ And here he had to stop a moment, stop to collect himself again. "Even after he saw me kill Zeus, he just stood there. Looking at me, like he was just waiting his turn." He looked at the bodies of two dogs he hadn't realized he'd loved until it was far too late. "I don't know what I'm going to say to Higgins."  
  
Ashley didn't know what to say. What was there **to** say? She glanced back; Zarana had told her to wait by the cars, but a blade sharp enough to kill two dogs was plenty strong enough to kill a human, and she didn't know this man well enough to know how this was affecting him. Then she heard Zoya's stricken wail, and following the younger girl's line of sight, saw what had to be Betray, half-buried in the vegetation. Oh no. Oh, no, no, no.  
  
She pushed Zoya into Thomas's embrace and walked around the dogs. One glance was all she needed. One of the dogs had gotten past Betray's guard and gone for her throat. Blood soaked tangled blonde curls, and hazel eyes stared sightlessly. Ashley did some fast mental math, and then closed her eyes, shuddering. If she had it right, Betray hadn't been thirty yet.  
  
Zoya could see it in Ashley's face without having to be told, and she slumped against Thomas, crying harder. She looked up as Ashley pulled at her shoulders. "Come on, your Mom told me to wait by the cars." She looked at Thomas. "You gonna be okay? I – I mean – I didn't mean – “ She stopped, feeling her face flame. Damn.  
  
But Thomas was able to smile, albeit wanly. "I'll be fine. Just when you get back to the parking lot, would you tell Rick and TC to come here? And ask TC to bring some blankets from the van."  
  
"Yeah. Yeah, okay, I can do that. Come on, Zoya." She kept one arm around Zoya's shoulders as she walked away.


	22. The Final Showdown

**Ka'ena Point SP**  
  
Ashley rummaged around in the back of the Jeep, ignoring the pounding coming from the trunk of the Buick. Zoya's eyes were wide.  
  
"Oh, it's only Payback. Your Dad stuffed her in there so she'd be out of the way. Did you know she was your Dad's ex-wife?  Sure makes a lot of things suddenly make sense, huh?" She brought one fist down **hard** on the trunk of the car. "Shut up in there!  We'll get to you when we're good and ready!" She turned back to the Jeep and finally found what she was looking for – a duffel bag from Zoya's school, containing a set of red-and-black sweats. "Here, let's at least get you into these … " She turned, just then realizing that Zoya's wrists were still tied up in the clothesline, and her mouth was still covered by the tape. She shook her head, covering her face with her hands. And her people were supposed to be legendary for their thoroughness. _'Yeah, sure, uh-huh, right, whatever, you've been on Earth too long, Aceah.'_  
  
"Okay, let's get you untied and untaped – and I won't tell you that won't hurt, because it's going to – and **then** we'll get you dressed." She made quick work of the clothesline, and then took one corner of the tape. "One-two-three, real quick, okay?  One, two, THREE!" She yanked in one direction while Zoya turned her head quickly away in the other.  
  
"Oh, ow.  Ow, ow, ow." Zoya collapsed to her knees, one hand gripping onto the Jeep's back bumper, sucking in deep drafts of air while repeating "Ow." over and over. She had to get back to her parents, Zartan had sworn to kill them … But when she tried to push herself back to her feet, the stress of the last three weeks finally caught up with her. She only vaguely heard Ashley calling her name as the world went dark around her.  
  
For a few fast seconds, Zartan truly thought it was all over but the paperwork. The gleaming blades of Zarana's spinner wheel were in his face, and the Joe brat who'd been keeping watch over Zoya was jabbing a Clan Arashikage sword into his back. It was not at all how he'd expected the day to end, to say the least. Then he heard the Joe scramble up the cliff behind him, and the man's voice was like the ringing of doom.  
  
"Mulan, toss me one of your hand cannons. We're going to end this." In the rush to get to Ka'ena Point, all the weapons and ordnance they'd gotten from Shipwreck had been accidentally left behind. All Blaine had to work with was what there was on hand.  
  
Mulan handed over the Desert Eagle she'd kept trained on Zartan while he was being pulled up, then she and everybody else backed off, including Zarana. This was between Blaine and Zartan only. Zartan shook his head.  
  
"You can't do it, Joe. You couldn't then and you can't now."  
  
Blaine felt the pistol fit his hand like the embrace of an old lover. Over a lifetime ago, he'd qualified Expert in boot camp, had very nearly wound up an Army Ranger, like Flint. The cold fire of battle was pouring through him, the rush of adrenaline every Marine lived for.  
  
"How long has it been since you held a gun on a daily basis, Joe? And how old are you now? Your aim and your eyesight aren't what they once were, are they? And there's so many people here, it would be tragic if you missed." Zartan blinked as he suddenly found himself staring down the sewer-pipe barrel of the Desert Eagle.  
  
"You know the one thing I always hated about you, Zartan? You never damn shut up. I could track you around a battlefield just by the sound of your yapping. Now, I never wanted it to have to come to this. I never wanted you or Zandar's blood on my hands, because I knew if it were, your ghosts would always stand between me and Zarana, no matter what else happened. It never occurred to me that you weren't worthy of my restraint. I never realized what a psycho you truly are. I never thought – even after Storm Shadow crossed over and started talking about how unbalanced you were – that you could be so sick as to want your own sister."  
  
"She was mine!" Zartan roared, his eyes flaring with rage. "She was mine, and you stole her from me!"  
  
"And if that wasn't bad enough, when Zarana slipped through your hands, you transferred your obsession to your niece, your sister's child. **My** child. You denied me 11 years of Zoya's life, time I'll never get back. Then when Zandar tried to bring her back to me, you killed him, too. Your own brother."  
  
"And what can you give her, Joe? How long will your precious family put up with an illegitimate little brat? With having to share you? Payback told me your family doesn't take for outsiders."  
  
"Boy, she twisted your head up real good, didn't she?" It fit, it all fit. Raised by household staff, boarding schools and summer camps, Cheryl had deeply resented Blaine's large, tight-knit family, calling them _intrusive_ and _demanding_.  
  
"Not that it's any of your business, but I called my mother before I even left Phoenix, and told her I was coming here to find her granddaughter. She's probably been planning the Welcome Home party ever since. My family's always known about Zoya's existence. And they'll welcome Zarana with open arms as well. Not just because she's Zoya's mother, but because she's the woman I love and intend to spend the rest of my life with."  
  
Sparks just managed to avoid rolling his eyes. _'I sure hope you've got a more romantic proposal planned for after this is over, Mainframe, because right now, Dusty's coyote could write your material!'_  
  
What was left of Zartan's mind finally tripped over the last crumbling edge of reality. "Not if you're not around to enjoy it, Joe!"  Mindless of rifles and swords, he charged. Zarana's cry of warning was lost in the roar and flash of the Desert Eagle as it bucked twice in Blaine's hand. At such close range, Zartan's head simply exploded, and he'd been far too close to the cliff. Driven backward by the force of impact of the two bullets, Zartan's decapitated corpse teetered on the edge of the 300-foot cliff – ( _'If I don't watch him fall, he'll haunt me for the rest of my life.'_ ) – and then plummeted back down, landing in the broken up rocks at the base. Zarana followed it down through the scope of her rifle, taking no chances.  
  
Blaine stood on the edge, the powerful handgun loose now in his grip, looking down as Johnny used a hook on a long pole to drag the corpse off the rocks and into the boat. Derek's voice crackled through the radio clipped to the collar of Mulan’s black swimsuit. _"We're going to take him in, get a positive ID. I want to make sure we don't have to be somewhere else doing this again another 10 years from now."_  
  
Behind Blaine's back, Dial-Tone caught Mulan’s attention, and then told her in sign language that they'd all better wait back in the parking lot. Mulan nodded, then replied that she was going to detour through Zartan's campsite first, shouldn't Betray and Magnum have caught up with us by now? Zarana handed Mulan her rifle, and the Desert Eagle she took from Blaine without him even noticing. Derek brought the Sea Ray about and cranked the twin engines, and they were alone.  
  
Zarana touched Blaine gently on the sleeve. "Blaine? Blaine, please say something. You're scaring me!"  
  
He blinked, forcing himself back. "I'm sorry, honey. I never wanted it to have to end like this." He reached out and wrapped his arms around her, holding on tight, as if he wanted to pull her inside himself. She went more than willingly, wrapping her own arms just as tight around him, burying her face in his shoulder.  
  
"I know you didn't. But it was the only way it could end. If one of us hadn't killed him, we'd be just as Mulan's friend said, somewhere else doing this again."  
  
"Yeah, you're right." He looked down, seeing three gray dorsal fins slice through the water heading for the rocks, drawn by the blood. But today the sharks would be disappointed; there was no prey to be had here. Today, all the sharks had gone hungry. Which meant it was time to go someplace where there were no sharks. Blaine pulled out of Zarana's arms, but held fast to her hand. "Let's leave this place, our daughter is waiting for us. And the next time we take a family vacation to Hawai'i, how about we go to the Big Island and watch the volcano, that might be more peaceful."  
  
"That sounds like a good idea."  
  
They walked away, leaving the sharks to mill about in confusion, angered by the amount of blood in water, with no prey to show for it. Frustrated and hungry, a big great white turned on the smaller mako next to her, and started eating him instead.  
  
Blaine and Zarana emerged into the parking lot just in time to see the blanket-wrapped body that had once been Betray being loaded into the back of TC's van. It had to be Betray, the only other people out of all of them who were that short were Zoya and Ashley. Zoya was sitting sideways in the passenger seat of one of the Jeeps, dressed in red-and-black sweats, and Ashley was standing next to her, in case she passed out again. Ashley caught sight of them first, and tapped Zoya on the shoulder. " **Now** you can take off."  
  
Zoya's head snapped up, her face drawn and pale. She'd woken from her faint just in time to hear the echoing reports from the Desert Eagle, and had attempted to go back to the cliff top. In her weakened condition, it hadn't taken much for Ashley to hold her back. Her imagination had done the rest. Now here were her parents before her, alive and whole. She would never recall moving, but she must have, because the next thing she knew was the feel of her father's arms around her so tightly she couldn't breathe and didn't care, and the sound of her mother repeating her name over and over and over.


	23. Reunited At Last

**Tripler Army Medical Center**  
  
Lifeline stepped back, nodded, and resettled the stethoscope around his neck.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with this kid that can't be solved by a three-hour bubble bath as hot as she can stand, a porterhouse dinner with all the trimmings and chocolate cake for dessert, about 48 hours of totally uninterrupted sleep, and her parents. Now scram, would you? I promised Bree we'd go to the theater tonight – “ He shuddered dramatically.  “ – And if I'm late, she'll make me go shopping."  
  
Zarana grinned devilishly. "Fate worse than death?"  
  
"You've never seen Bree shop. The credit-card scanners scream for mercy when they see her walk in." Lifeline stepped back as Blaine gathered Zoya up from the examining table. She was nearly asleep already, her tri-colored braids flopping against Blaine's BDU shirt, steel-gray eyes half-closed.  
  
"Thank you – **YAWN** – Lifeline.”  
  
"No problem, Zoya. Hopefully the next time I see you, it'll be under better circumstances."  
  
"You can count on that. As soon as we get settled in Arizona, and Zoya and Zarana have had time to get to know my family, I'm sending word to everyone who had to put up with me back then." Blaine nodded to Zarana to go out ahead of him.  
  
Ashley and Mulan bounced up out of the plastic chairs in the waiting room like they were related to Tigger. "Well?"  
  
"She's fine. Lifeline said that the drugs Zartan was keeping her knocked out on weren't addictive and won't do any permanent damage."  
  
 _"Whoooo."_ Mulan's sigh of relief nearly doubled her over. "Anyway, while you guys were in there, I talked to TC. Since your room at the Marriott got fried, and neither Sparks's nor Torpedo's apartments are big enough to hold all of us, we've all been invited to stay at the estate. Wait until you see this place. Now, come on. I need to spring my armament from that greenshirt at the door, before he gets the bright idea of going UA and heading over to the firing range. And if those swords go missing, Storm Shadow really will kill me!"  
  
Ashley rolled her eyes. "No, he won't. I told you, if they were that important, he would have come after me to get them back by now."  
  
"You think, Baby Snake."  
  
Zoya yawned again as they emerged into the parking lot, smothering it against her father's shoulder. "Forget 48 hours, I feel like I could sleep for a week. What's a porterhouse?" She was fast asleep before Blaine could answer. Chuckling, he bent to place her in the backseat of his Jeep, fastened her seat belt, and then gently folded around her the denim comforter Ashley had brought all the way from home. Despite Lifeline's reassurances, she was pale, thin and cold, with dark circles under her eyes that gave her the look of a humanoid raccoon. Zarana climbed in the backseat with her, and Ashley took shotgun so she could navigate. Mulan climbed into the borrowed Island Hoppers Jeep, feeling the weight of the past three weeks in her head. _'Micro-Snake's not the only one who's going to sleep for a week! Dad, how in the heck did you do this kind of stuff every day for 6 years?'_  
  
They arrived at the estate to find David sitting on the ground, leaning back on the front bumper of a red Ferrari. He lazily unfolded himself as the Jeeps stopped, Mulan wincing as she sprayed gravel a little too close to the Ferrari for her taste.  
  
"You first."  
  
"We left Zartan and Betray with the county coroner, and Payback with the Honolulu PD. Thomas did some major favor-trading with Lt. Page, I think. Ash, can you stay awake long enough to get into the Net and see if you can find **anything at all** about Betray?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess, but it'll cost you at least a Cabinet-level position when all is said and done."  
  
"You want it, you got it. And may the gods have mercy on you. Johnny, Kevin and Derek are around in the garden, digging a grave for the Dobermans. We didn't tell Page about that part. The old guy was pretty broken up about them, he really loved those dogs."  
  
That brought Zoya up and out of her slumber. "The dogs? What about the dogs? Where are they?"  
  
David grinned at her. "There you are. The dogs are in the garden, Thomas's boss wants to bury them there."  
  
Zoya looked up at Blaine. "Please, Daddy? I know it sounds funny, but I want to say goodbye."  
  
And Blaine remembered seeing Calhoun's face in a courtroom, as a 16-year-old boy trying to act like a man described how his schnook of a mother's live-in shackrat boyfriend had locked a helpless Bichon Frisé in a metal shed in Arizona in August, simply because Calhoun had left a glass and a plate sitting on a countertop, instead of putting them in the dishwasher before he left for his after-school job. How Calhoun's facade had shattered, as he described how the dog would come into his room and curl at his feet, as he sat at his desk doing homework. Calhoun had never had a chance to say goodbye.  
  
"I don't think it sounds funny at all. Let's go."  
  
The burial service was short, with Thomas, Rick and TC offering memories of Zeus and Apollo in more innocent times. Jonathan Higgins's Britishness very nearly failed him.  
  
"I recall one time, I was sitting before the fire, reading Shakespeare aloud to the Lads, when Thomas came in with one arm and one leg bandaged up. I asked him what had happened, and he replied that two dogs had attacked him. As one of the Lads' primary functions was to keep Thomas away from the Ferrari, I asked him if it had been they that attacked him. He replied that it hadn't been they that time, and then turned to the Lads and said, _"Hi, guys."_ As if on cue, they both growled at him. The next morning, I caught him feeding Apollo the leftover Beef Wellington from the night before. All that time, and it was all a show. They liked him better, they just put a good face on it so I'd never be the wiser. And there are fools who would have you believe animals cannot think."  
  
Thomas and Higgins opted to stay in the garden, so TC showed everybody where they could crash, where the kitchen was – they’d mostly been living on what could be acquired through a drive-up window.  
  
Zoya balked as Blaine bent over to place her on the bed. "I can't just sleep like this, Daddy. I really do need a bath, I'm nasty."  
  
"As tired as you are, you'll probably drown. And as tired as your mother and I both are, we couldn't begin to jump in after you. The adrenaline rush that got me down that cliff crashed a while ago." Blaine had passed 49 during the course of his daughter's abduction, and right now he was feeling every day of it. Zarana flopped down as well. "You ought to call your mother, Blaine. Heaven knows what she may have heard by now."  
  
"Yeah, because if I wait to call her later, I'll hear about it." He sat down and reached for the phone, dialing his parents' number. "Eachan! Hey, little brother. What? Oh, man. Everybody okay? Good. And didn't I tell you not to live up there, moron? Oh, wait, excuse me, didn't Cormick and I **both** tell you not to live up there? Yeah, yeah. We haven't had a forest fire in Scottsdale in … We are not overdue. Hey, I thought my nephew was 7, not his Daddy. Just put Mom on the phone, jeez." He took the phone away from his mouth and rolled his eyes at Zarana. "My brother Eachan, the idiot. Hi, Mom! Yeah, Eachan was just telling me. Listen, Mom, I've got someone here who wants to talk to you." He grinned and handed the phone to Zoya.  
  
A wave of panic rolled over Zoya. "Umm, hello, Grandmother." She gave her father as much of a glare as she was capable of at the time. _'Next time, you warn me!'_  
  
Mary Kate Parker sounded exactly like one would expect a grandmother to sound. _"Now, young lady, none of this formal 'Grandmother' stuff, you call me Grams, same as your cousins. And you've got plenty of them, I can assure you. Kerry Parker, if you must pester your brother into chasing you with a baseball bat, make sure he chases you outside."_  
  
Through the phone, Zoya heard a giggling _"Yes, Grams."_ Followed by an angry _"Give-That-Back!"_ Then a shriek, and a door slamming.  
  
Mary Kate sighed. _"Sorry about that, darling. Your Uncle Eachan & Aunt Megan's house in Tucson burnt down, so they and that batch of your cousins are using my house as a displaced-persons camp. Luckily, Bridget is friends with the girl down the street, so she can escape from these ruffians she has to call brothers; there aren't any boys around here Donovan's or Kerry's ages. Now then, what shall we call you?"_  
  
Making a mental note to mind her back around Donovan and Kerry, Zoya giggled. "My name is Zoya Gayle. I'm 11, and my birthday is March 22nd. I'm an Aries."  
  
 _"Let me write that down or I know I'll forget, and then your Gramps will tell everyone he's married to an old woman. Don't listen to him, I may be 74, but I'm not old! Now, Raggs, get down off the desk. Why don't you go torment Rumbler? And of course, there's the door. Oh, thank you, Megan. Tell me, Zoya, how exactly do I spell your middle name?"_  
  
"G-a-y-l-e. My friend Annie said there's a singer who spells her name like that."  
  
 _"There is indeed, I've got quite a few of her records."_ There was a commotion through the phone, and then Mary Kate exclaimed, _"Oh, Siobhan! And little Allie, oh, come here darling!"_ A child's imperious voice came through the line.  
  
 _"Nana, Nana! We went to Granpa's house, but he wasn't there! And he's not at his office either! Where's my Granpa?"_  
  
Mary Kate chuckled. _"He's in Hawai'i, dear, and he'll be home very soon. Now, I just sent Raggs off to torment Rumbler. Why don't you go see if you can rescue poor Rumbler?"_  
  
"Wait, Grams." Math was something Zoya got pretty good marks in, and as tired as she was, she could still add 2 and 2 and make 4. She was just betting that the unseen Allie was likely to be Scurry's daughter. "Let Allie talk to my Dad, first, so she'll know he's okay." Who knew what the child had been told or had seen on TV or had guessed about what had happened to her father?  
  
 _"Of course, Zoya, you're absolutely right. Here, Allie, say hello to Granpa."_  
  
Zoya passed the phone to Blaine, who mouthed _'Thank you'_. "Hey, Allie Cat! Yes, I'm in Hawai'i. No, not the part with the volcanoes, the part with the big sunken ship in the harbor. I promise I'll be home by Saturday, and I'm bringing you a surprise. Well if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, would it? Is your Mommy right there? Yes, I would. I love you, too, Allie Cat, bye-bye. Hey, Siobhan. How are you? No, no, I haven't heard anything new. And I've been hitting every button I can find. They'll find him, Siobhan. Calhoun survived all the scumballs Cheryl dated, he'll survive the Iraqis. We just need to keep praying. Have you heard from any of the other guys in his squadron? Okay, I'll see you and Allie when I get back. I told Allie Saturday. Could you put my mother back on? Thanks. Hi, Mom. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Calhoun's tough, Mom, he'll get through this. Remember, he graduated top of his class in survival training. He knows what he's doing, and if he and Tagalong can stay together, they've got that much better of a chance. Would you like to talk to Zarana? Whoops, never mind, Mom, I think she's down for the count. You'll have to catch her when we get home Saturday. Okay, Mom. I love you, too. Bye." He hung up the phone, smiling at Zoya.  
  
"Thanks for catching on about Allie so quickly. She's only 5."  
  
"Does she understand about Scurry being shot down? Or does she just know he's gone away somewhere?" Zoya scooted back on the bed so she was back-to-front with her mother, who was indeed dead to the world.  
  
"Siobhan – that’s Calhoun's wife – put a map of the Middle East up on the family room wall at their place, and glued the aircraft carrier piece from a Battleship game in the approximate location of the USS Constellation. I don't know what she's told Allie about him being MIA." He flopped back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I **told** Eachan not to live in that part of Tucson."  
  
Zoya giggled, reaching back to pull Zarana's arm around her waist, and then reaching out to place her hand on Blaine's arm, just above his elbow. "Donovan was chasing Kerry with a baseball bat, I think Kerry took something of his, and Bridget's at her friend's house down the street."  
  
Blaine chuckled, closing his eyes. "You'll fit in pretty good with Donovan and Bridget. And Patrick, Seamus and Glenna are around your age, too. Having you in that pack will even up the odds for Bridget and Glenna, the boys have had things their way for too long."  
  
Grinning, Zoya allowed herself to slide back into sleep.  
  
In a corner of the darkened room, a column of light shimmered, and then formed into two people. They stayed for only a moment, making sure that the family on the bed was truly going to be all right, and then shimmered away again. There were other places they needed to be right now.


	24. Homecoming

**Sky Harbor Airport  
Phoenix, Arizona**  
  
"Kid's wearing his blue shirt, Blaine." Leatherneck peered out the window as the Lear Jet taxied around.  
  
Blaine rolled his eyes. "Is he on crutches?"  
  
"Can't tell from this distance. Wait, only if he's hiding them behind his back. His arm's in a sling, though."  
  
Zoya looked through the window. A tall, lean cowboy in black jeans and a bright blue shirt was leaning back against the private terminal building, a black cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes. His right arm was trussed up in a sling. "Who's that?"  
  
"That is your older brother, Teague, who needs to be locked up. Claims he doesn't care for getting shot at to make his living, but he has no problem at all climbing up on the back of a 2,000-plus-pound animal, whose only purpose in life is to shake him off and then stomp on him. He's a professional bull rider. He wears that blue shirt when he gets injured."  
  
"Did Cheryl drop him on his head?" Zarana reached for her bags as the plane rolled to a stop.  
  
"No, I think it has more to do with the number and frequency of times Calhoun and Aislinn thumped on him." Blaine turned to Zoya. "Now, let me explain something. We're going from a climate-controlled plane, to an air-conditioned building, into an air-conditioned car. You're only going to be out in the heat for a few minutes each time."  
  
Zoya didn't understand what he meant until she stepped outside the plane. It was like getting hit with a sledgehammer, one that kept coming back until you were well and properly pummeled into the ground. Heat wasn't the word, she wondered why the airport tarmac under her feet wasn't melting and flowing like lava. She could even feel it rising up through the soles of her sneakers! By the time she reached Teague she was staggering. His good left arm whipped out to catch her.  
  
"Easy there, little sister. I guess you've never lived in the desert before."  
  
"How hot is it?" Her voice was suddenly very small.  
  
"Supposed to get up to 115 in the shade today. Where there's shade to be found. Let's get you inside."  
  
She'd never been so thankful for air-conditioning in her life. Or cold water. There was a strategically-placed vending machine right inside the door, and Teague shoveled a handful of quarters into it, then tossed her the bottle.  
  
"Why aren't you melted into a puddle on the ground?" She'd glugged down at least one-third of the bottle on one gulp.  
  
Teague tipped the brim of his black hat back and grinned. "I've lived in Arizona all my life. I'm used to it. Hi Dad."  
  
"What did you do to yourself this time?"  
  
"Aw, just got hung up on my dismount, then slammed between the fence and 2,000 pounds of very angry black Brahma. Separated my shoulder, busted 6 ribs. Nothing I haven't been through before. But I won the event, and the purse will buy me a lot of Aleve."  
  
"Remind me, sometime, to kill Cormick for ever talking me into letting you enter that mutton-busting contest all those years ago."  
  
Teague just grinned. "Aislinn's outside, keeping the car running. I think we need to take the kid home and drop her in the pool. Adelia donated an old swimsuit she's outgrown, Bridget's only suit went with the house. And Uncle Eachan's already looking for a builder, to rebuild the place."  
  
"How did I know that?" Blaine cast his eyes to the ceiling as they walked through the terminal. Zoya could see the heat waves shimmering through the glass doors. She hoped the car was parked nearby.  
  
By the time they reached the black Cadillac DeVille, Zoya swore she'd never again leave an innocent, helpless Popsicle lying out in the sun. Now she knew how it felt! And it was like this all the time here?  
  
Aislinn was leaning on the front bumper of the DeVille.  “Finnegan’s Wake.”  
  
Blaine looked at her.  “What about it?”  
  
“The bull. Its’ name is Finnegan’s Wake. He’s Irish, and he deliberately gets on the back of a 2,000-pound animal that wants to kill him, and its’ name is Finnegan’s Wake.”  
  
Teague crossed his eyes at his sister. “I rode the thing, didn’t I? Get off my back, Aislinn.”  
  
Zarana wasn't feeling much better than Zoya was. 11 years of Canadian winters had made her forget what heat was. "I certainly hope someone has a suit I can borrow." She sighed in relief as she sat in front of one of the air vents. Aislinn had set the A/C to arctic. Now she leaned forward from the backseat and gave Zarana a once-over with her practiced cop's eye.  
  
"You and Aunt Ceara aren't exactly the same size, but she should have something that'll fit you."  
  
"I'll buy her a new one, as soon as I can." She looked around at the black interior of the black car, as Blaine slammed the trunk closed. "Honestly, this looks like something the undertaker would drive."  
  
Teague choked on a laugh. "Well, for the past 11 years, Dad's done a pretty good imitation of an undertaker. Ow, Aislinn!" He leaned down to retrieve his hat, which had fallen on the floor when Aislinn reached over Zoya to smack Teague upside the back of the head, and then howled again as Zoya added her own shot. "Dad, the girls are picking on me!"  
  
"You're 22 years old, Teague. Deal with it."  
  
They were out of the airport and well on the road before Aislinn couldn't hold her silence any longer. "Zarana says this looks like an undertaker's car."  
  
"You brat!" Zarana reached into the backseat, blindly swinging in the direction of Aislinn's voice. Teague pulled Zoya down across his lap to keep her out of the way. But Blaine was laughing as hard as any of them.  
  
"That's what Jack and Wendell told me when I bought it. I told them I didn't need anything fancy, just four wheels and an engine … What?" Zarana was looking at him like he'd grown three heads.  
  
"This is a Cadillac, Blaine! This car had to run you very close to $60,000.00, and you say you didn't want anything fancy?"  
  
Teague was hooting. "Don't worry, Zarana. When we get back to the house, I'll introduce you to My Reclamation Project. You'll like that a lot better."  
  
"You mean Our Lady Of Perpetual Help. Don't let him kid you, Zarana. That truck will never see the road again." Aislinn shook her head.  
  
"It will so."  
  
When they reached the house, Zarana felt her stomach tie up in knots. As they were walking in from the garage to the kitchen, Aislinn leaned over to whisper in her ear.  
  
“Cheryl never lived here, she never even drove her car up the driveway. Dad didn’t buy this place until after he’d retired from the Joes.”  
  
Blaine still overheard them. “My mother, my sisters and the kids did most of the decorating. Feel free to change anything you want, honey.”  
  
And so it went. Becoming part of a family was a bumpy experience for Zoya. Little things, like getting yelled at by Aislinn when she got caught riding her new bike in a drainage channel with all the other neighborhood kids. Having never lived in a desert before, Zoya hadn't known about flash floods, and how it could be a blue clear sky in Scottsdale, but it was pouring rain upstream in Cave Creek, and the water was heading her way. And finding out that gila monsters, scorpions and rattlesnakes were best seen at a distance.  
  
And how the time, with an 11-year-old's logic, she got down on herself about being the only person in the entire Parker clan who didn't have an Irish name, so her cousin Erin played her a song by The Wilkinsons called _'The Only Rose'_.  
  
 _"There's a million stars  
In the summer sky  
And each one has its name  
There's a million snowflakes  
In the wintertime but no  
Two are quite the same  
And there's something you  
Can't see right now  
But one day girl you'll know  
In a field that's full of daisies  
You're the only rose."_  
  
 _The Only Rose_  
The Wilkinsons  
 _Here And Now_  
Giant 2000  
  
And playing with Allie, who was built along the lines of a small tank and was about as fearless. She spent several afternoons chasing the younger girl around various water / thrill ride parks. At least, when she wasn't **being** chased by Donovan and Patrick, who seemed determined to either drown her in the nearest available wave pool, or else throw her off the top of the nearest available roller coaster. Eventually, she got used to the heat.  
  
And going to see the Arizona Diamondbacks play at Bank One Ballpark. She refused to sit in the pool section until Scurry came home. And then Zarana got mad at Blaine because he owned a luxury box, and she told him that if he wanted to sit and watch a ballgame behind a glass wall, he might as well watch it on TV at home. She wanted to sit behind the D-Backs dugout and curse at the umpires. After about the third lousy call and her second hot dog, Zoya agreed her mother's way was much better.  
  
And still, no word about Scurry. It seemed as if when his F-18 was blown out of the sky, that he'd disappeared off the face of the planet. Blaine always had at least one TV tuned to one news channel or another at all times, and the whole Parker clan kept candles burning.  
  
With a little help from Ashley, she got into the local school system. After a week, she'd decided it was about time she let the colors wash out of her hair. She was very surprised to find it was the same color as her mother's, the same dark honey gold.  
  
And one day, she came home from school and cut through the garage, because she saw the truck Teague actually drove, and saw the lower half of him sticking out from underneath Our Lady Of Perpetual Help – the 1976 Ford Ranger he called _'His Reclamation Project'_. She liked Aislinn's name for it a lot better. She kicked one sneaker-clad foot. "So. You taking a girl to a hockey game?" Teague had tickets to that night's Phoenix Coyotes game.  
  
"I might. Hey, look under that tarp over there. Something came for you today."  
  
She turned around. The garage had five bays – one for The Undertaker; one for Our Lady; one for the 2003 100th Anniversary Harley Davidson FLHTCUI Ultra Classic Electra Glide Blaine had bought Zarana, calling it _"All the Christmas and birthday gifts I never got to give you before."_ ; one for the 2004 Chevy Avalanche Blaine now drove far more than The Undertaker; and one that stood empty – or had. There was an oddly familiar shape in that bay, covered by a COBRA tarp!  
  
What in the world? She walked over and flipped up one corner of the tarp. The right front corner of Betray's blue Pinto looked back at her.  
  
"Turns out Betray left it to you." Zoya's head snapped up and around. Blaine was walking around the end of the Avalanche. "We finally tracked down a relative she'd kept in touch with, and she'd left that relative a copy of her will."  
  
Stunned, Zoya hauled the tarp all the way off, leaving it in a crumpled pile on the floor. She walked all the way around the car, then opened the door and settled herself in the driver's seat. There was an envelope with her name on it leaning on the gearshift.  
  
 _"Zoya,_  
  
 Hang in here with me, kid, this is a lot to get out. I'm sitting here writing this behind a Home Depot in Honolulu. Payback, the bitch, may have just killed your parents, and Zartan's still got you. If you don't ever get to read this, I guess neither of us will know about it, because I'm not leaving this island until he pays for what he's done. Which means I'm probably not leaving this island at all.  
  
 I know I never showed it, but I thought you were the best little kid anywhere. (Don't mind the tearstains, OK? I thought I was all cried out but I guess not.) I just couldn't let myself show it, because every time I give someone my heart, it gets thrown back at my feet. Your uncle is the only person in 27 years that ever held onto it. Now he's gone, and our baby boy with him, and maybe your parents, too. I'm going to do my best to make sure you get out of this. I can't believe I wasted 11 years lying to myself, telling myself I didn't care – that I couldn't let myself care. And you kept right on ignoring me, digging your way deeper into my heart. Smart kid, darn you.  
  
 If your parents didn't make it out of the hotel, stick with these friends you found, okay? They seem like a bunch of pretty good kids, and they won't let you go wrong. Don't let anybody change you, Zoya Gayle. You're perfect just as you come. Now I've got to go, before I lose it completely.  
  
Love, Betray"  
  
Zoya began sobbing, holding the paper away from her face. Why did she find out only after people were dead how much they meant to her? Strong arms reached into the car and pulled her out, carrying her into the house.


	25. Miracles and Firelight

How in the world had it gotten to be the middle of October already, when it seemed like the middle of June had been just yesterday? Zoya shook her head at the paperboard witch that leered at her from a store window. She was shopping with her Mom and Aislinn, searching for Halloween gear. Apparently, in the Parker family, Halloween was a very big deal.  
  
And still, no word about Scurry.  
  
She looked up as Zarana stopped suddenly, in front of a clothing consignment shop. Hanging on a mannequin in the window was a pale blue-green silk dress.  
  
"I wore a dress very much like that, the first night I ever spent with Blaine. I like to think it was the night we conceived Zoya."  
  
Aislinn looked at the dress, gears clicking together in her mind, then began speaking in the same tone she used when questioning particularly dense suspects. "Okay. You are going in there and buying back that dress. Zoya is on a long weekend from school, so she is coming with me to Kingman to harass Teague. And you are going to spend this weekend making Dad feel like he's 37 again."  
  
Zarana looked at the dress. The one night she'd worn it, she'd felt like royalty. Then she looked at Aislinn. "Are you sure you can stay busy in Kingman until Sunday night?"  
  
Aislinn just laughed, and walked around Zoya to push open the shop door.  
  
Blaine looked at the monument that now stood in the backyard. Zoya had told him about the Memory Garden that stood in the backyard at the Lost Children's House. It had taken him a while, but he'd managed to find a stone carver who understood what he wanted. A red granite obelisk as tall as he was now stood under an arbor that in the spring and summer would be crawling with roses.  
  
"Daddy, we're home! Hey, what's that?"  
  
He turned to see Zoya framed by the doorway leading into the glass-enclosed pool house.  
  
"Where's your Mom?"  
  
"Inside, putting some things away. I'm about to go up and pack; Aislinn's taking me to Kingman for the weekend. We're gonna go drive Teague barking mad."  
  
"That'll be a short trip. Would you go tell your Mom to come out here, please?"  
  
"Sure." She tuned and darted back into the house, calling for Zarana.  
  
"Blaine? What's wrong?" He smiled as she walked up next to him. It had taken her less than a week of Arizona in the summer to hack off more than half of her dark honey hair, now it brushed just below the shoulders of her Flames sweater. That sweater was causing some interesting arguments between his lady, and his Coyotes-crazed family.  
  
"Nothing's wrong, I just wanted you to see this." He stepped back so she could see the obelisk.  
  
Carved into the top of the monument were five yellow hibiscus, the state flower of Hawai'i. Below that was the image of a motorcycle. Then came the writing.  
  
 **Lucas Robert Blackwood  
Zandar  
May 1968 – December 2002  
  
Amber Fawn Hunton Blackwood  
Betray  
March 1975 – June 2003  
  
Mark George Blackwood  
October 2002  
  
No farewell words were spoken  
No chance to say good-bye  
You were gone before we knew it  
And only God knows why**  
  
 **If tears could build a staircase  
And memories a lane  
I'd walk right up to Heaven  
And bring you home again**  
  
Zarana gasped, feeling Blaine's arms come around her from behind. Zoya walked over the monument, gently touching first Zandar's name, then Betray's, then the baby's. She remembered the day, three months too soon, that Betray had gone into labor. Far too small, little Mark had lived barely three hours. Losing his son had been hard enough; nearly losing Betray had almost killed Zandar. Had it been his own personal tragedy, and realizing how another man must have felt, that had led her uncle to try to bring her back to her father? Zoya wished she knew. She could hear her Mom's quiet sobbing behind her. She turned, thinking she'd go back in, tell Aislinn she didn't want to be away from her parents this weekend after all.  
  
She turned almost straight into Blaine, and his eyes were smiling, though sad. "You have fun with Aislinn this weekend, okay? I'll see you Sunday."  
  
"You sure?" She slanted a worried glance at Zarana, who gulped back a few last tears.  
  
"Go on with your sister, luv. We'll be fine."  
  
Shrugging, and figuring she'd never understand grown-ups even after she became one herself, Zoya headed into the house to pack.  
  
Blaine stood at the window, watching Aislinn's black Trans Am peel out. "Tell me not to feel guilty for wanting her out of the house this weekend."  
  
"We'll be guilty together. Now then, why don't you go attack that computer game that's been frustrating you all week, and let me take care of dinner?"  
  
He turned, looking at her wisely. Apart for so long or not, he still knew when she was Up To Something – had learned in one day 17 years ago, how to interpret the changing moods in her green eyes. He repeated the question Zoya had posed outside. "You sure?"  
  
"Go play with your little car chase game, Blaine." She gave him a little push in the direction of his home office. "I'll call you when dinner's ready."  
  
Shaking his head, he headed for the computer.  
  
An hour and a half later, he was slaloming through downtown San Francisco when the intercom at his elbow crackled. "Can you break away?"  
  
"Just let me shut down." This was done quickly, and Blaine was soon walking into the Great Room, where just 6 months ago, he'd sat watching an Expos/Diamondbacks game with Jack and Wendell. Now, a fire crackled cheerfully in the fireplace, backlighting a beautiful blonde woman in a swirling pale blue and green silk dress.   
  
That dress. Oh, my God. He'd seen it hanging on a mannequin in a consignment shop window over a year ago and had nearly wrecked The Undertaker. After that, he'd taken to driving three miles out of his way, just to not have to drive past that shop. Since they'd come back from Hawai'i, it had completely slipped his mind.  
  
Zarana smiled. "Of course we don't have the ocean here, but I didn't think you'd mind."   
  
"I'd need my head felt if I did." He crossed the room, taking her by the hand so he could turn her around, watching the firelight play over her. "I should have given in to my first impulse all those years ago. I wanted to put a Vulcan nerve-pinch on you, tie you up and stuff you in my sea bag."  
  
She laughed softly, her heart breaking as she remembered how hard it had been to walk away from him in the parking lot of that Dunkin' Donuts in Marina Del Rey. Even now, she couldn't hear that King George Strait song without crying. "I wouldn't have put up much of a fight." She moved into his arms, lifting her lips to his.  
  
Blaine tightened his arms around Zarana, moaning. If he'd known 12 years ago that it was going to get better and better every time, he really **would** have put a nerve-pinch on her all those years ago. For her part, Zarana was wondering if she was standing too close to the fire, or if those tales of spontaneous human combustion might be true. She whimpered as Blaine pulled away, suddenly bereft.  
  
"Wait. Just wait. I need to get something. Just stay right here." He gently squeezed her shoulders, and then disappeared up the stairs.  
 _  
'Where the hell did I put that? Aha!'_ He spotted the black velvet box hiding in the back of a drawer and snagged it.  
  
Zarana's eyes went wide and she forgot to breathe as Blaine returned, clutching something in his hand. Something small enough that she couldn't easily tell what it was. Faintly breathless from running up and down the stairs, he caught her hand and pulled her to the couch.  
  
"This is something else I should have done 12 years ago. I stuffed it in one of your suitcases while you were packing that last morning, because I didn't have the courage to show it to you, knowing how conflicted you were about betraying your brothers. I guess you never found it but Zandar must have, because he put it in the package he left behind for Zoya." Taking a deep breath, he flicked open the box. Zarana gasped as the swirl of perfectly ice-white diamonds captured the light from the fire and held it fast. Stunned green eyes swept up to meet nervous steel-gray ones.  
  
"Victoria Kathleen Blackwood, will you marry me?"  
  
For a few moments, it was as if the world stopped. Then, as if from a very long distance, she heard her own voice.  
  
"Yes. Oh, yes. A million times, yes."  
  
Blaine let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and gently pulled the ring out of the box. He picked up her left hand, sliding the ring on her third finger. It fit perfectly, and as it slipped into place, he felt as if all the scattered gears of his life had suddenly clicked back together. He gathered her into his arms, smiling as he realized she still looked stunned. He kissed her, feeling her begin to respond, to come back. He pulled back slightly, smiling. "I love you. I started loving you when you walked into that computer room 17 years ago, and I've never stopped. Even when we were apart, I loved you."  
  
She glanced away, biting her lip. "Which part of me? Zarana or Vicky?" And which was really which? She'd been Zarana for so long, even she'd forgotten that Vicky had ever existed, until being around her daughter had reminded her that she herself had been 11, once.  
  
"Both. It doesn't matter to me what name you go by. I love all of you, honey." And looking into her eyes, he could see that finally, at long last, she was starting to believe in him. To believe in herself.  
  
Without warning he picked her up, spinning around and around in front of the fire, not realizing he was laughing until she joined him. "Tell me again! Tell me now! Right now!"  
  
"I love you. I love you, and I'm going to spend the rest of your life proving it to you."  
  
Looking up at her, caught high in his arms, he didn't see the leg of the coffee table. As quickly as he'd swept her up, they went tumbling back to the couch. Zarana found herself trapped under Blaine, the skirt of her dress crushed up between them. His desire for her was starkly evident, and she was very glad that she'd made up dinner only to a point, and then placed it in the fridge to wait for later. While she still had the breath to speak, she gave his words back to him.  
  
"I love you, too. I walked into that computer room 17 years ago thinking that nobody and nothing was going to stop me. Then you rolled out from under that control panel and started flirting with me straight away, and I felt as if I was the one who'd been hit with the electric zapper. When we were apart I almost lost my mind."  
  
He closed his eyes, resting his forehead against hers. He had a sudden idea that they were going to be eating dinner at 0200. Maybe. "Oh, God, honey. I know we can't make up for the time we lost, but we can sure as hell make the most of the next 30 or 40 years."  
  
"Are you sure it's only going to take that long?" Smiling, she slowly raised and lowered her hips, her smile turning just a touch wicked when he gave a low groan, like thunder rolling out in the desert. There was a time to be Victoria, and a time certainly to be Zarana. She moved again, and his hands clutched at her shoulders.  
  
"Don't tease, honey. I'm not a kid anymore, and I – “  
  
"I'm well aware of that, darling." She pushed against him and he rolled over, coming to rest against the back cushions of the couch. It was a huge, overstuffed affair, the kind of thing that invited you to sit down and make yourself comfortable. Once you did, it was almost impossible to climb back up out of. That was fine with Zarana. Since this was Wednesday night and Zoya was 185 miles away in Kingman until Sunday night, they had no fear of being caught.  
  
She sat up, patting the space she had just vacated. "Lie down."  
  
Blaine grinned as he did as ordered. "I'm going to enjoy this, aren't I?"  
  
"Oh, yes." She sat down across his hips, swiftly unbuttoning his shirt. He filled his hands with her silk-covered hips, hoping to see if what was under the silk was the same sky-blue lace. She batted his hands away. "Uh-uh. You just lie still, let me do all the work."  
  
Lie still, riiiiight. Already he could feel his body screaming at him to move. Her sweet weight above him was more than a torment. "Don't torture me."  
  
She just smiled, leaning down to cover his mouth with hers. She took his hands by the wrists and raised them over his head. "I know you can do it. Just imagine you're standing at attention for inspection." She undulated slowly, applying extra pressure where their hips met, and where her breasts crushed against his chest.  
  
"Oh, believe me, honey, I'm **definitely** at attention." Even though he'd had her back now for four months, Blaine still couldn't quite believe this was happening, every time he took her in his arms. After 12 years without her – without any woman, after losing Zarana he hadn't so much as looked at another – and The Big 5-0 getting closer every day, he'd figured his body had simply shut itself off. Recent and frequent experience had proven him delightfully wrong. It might take a little longer nowadays to recharge his batteries between each round, but the payoffs were more than worth it.  
  
Zarana grinned at the sultry, almost feral look on his face. Any second now, he'd break free of her grip, roll them both over and take control. Or so he wanted her to believe. So the order of the night was to take him so far out of himself he couldn't react that quickly. She had done with his shirt, and then moved immediately for the faded black jeans that encased his legs.  
  
Digging his fingers into one of the jewel-toned chenille throw pillows that now complemented the jet-black couch, Blaine fought the urge to writhe. "That feels … so, so good – Oh, God!" As she reached inside the opening of his jeans and lightly danced her fingers up and down his swollen length. His eyes snapped open, focusing on her face. "Honey, please." He groaned in satisfaction as she dragged the jeans down and away, leaving them in a crumpled black pile on the floor. With his hands over his head, the open shirt was left to frame his torso. As his wife-to-be stood over him, visually feasting on what soon would be hers, he silently congratulated himself on making certain he stayed in fighting trim. At 49, he still had the same body he'd had at 37.  
  
Zarana sashayed towards him, stopping when her hips were roughly even with his head. She bent her knees until the bow at the small of her back was right next to his face. Her voice held pure deviltry. "No using your hands, but I think you remember how to get this off me, right?"  
  
Oh, dear God. As he had that first night, Blaine wondered how in the hell he'd gotten this lucky. Moving only his head, he captured one trailing end of the bow in his teeth, and then pulled slowly back. Groaned as the whole dress drooped, and then slid completely away as she stood straight again. And forget the sky-blue lace, there was nothing underneath the blue-green silk but her. His eyes traveled up her body, remembering the first night they'd come together here. She'd been even more shy and uncertain that night, than she'd been the first night in California, unsure of what his reaction would be to the changes that Zoya's birth and being 35 had made in her body. It had taken him nearly two hours to convince her that he still found her as beautiful at 35 as he had at 23.   
  
His eyes turned molten steel as they reached her breasts, and the place over her heart where she'd placed the tattoo. On Zoya's fifth birthday, she'd had a four-inch-high broken heart inked on her chest. Inside one half was 'Blaine', inside the other half was 'Victoria' – which was how he'd learned her first name. Straight down the middle, each letter bouncing off a jagged point was 'Zoya'.   
  
"Come to me." It was a command, not a request. She saw the look in his eyes, and knew the time for play was over. She knelt over him, and the sight of his straining shaft back-dropped against her belly was more than he could stand. Now he would not be deterred, as he half-sat up, wrapping his arms around her. Her broken cry echoed through the room as he found her breasts with his mouth, stopping only briefly to pass his lips over the red ink heart, something he never failed to do no matter how tenuous his control. He closed his mouth over one taut nipple, covering the other with his hand. She plowed her hands through his hair to hold him as close as possible as he suckled and teased until she was sobbing, and her hips were moving in a motion as old as the sea.  
  
And now she was the one begging, entreating him to end the merciless ache that she couldn't fight on her own. How many cold Canadian nights had she lain awake, crying helplessly in the endless darkness, as her body burned for what she'd lost? How many scorching Arizona days had he stayed at his desk until he was ready to collapse, just to not have to face an empty house that screamed his loneliness from every corner?  
  
Zarana twisted in his arms, writhing. She could feel completion racing towards her like a flash flood, but she refused to be swept away alone. Blindly she reached between their bodies, curling her hand around Blaine's aching manhood, smiling as he gasped, tugging gently until his hand snapped down to grip her wrist. His eyes were almost black now, searing into hers. He pulled her wayward hand up until it rested safely on his shoulder, then slipped his own hand down between her thighs. Her scream as he found her burning, weeping center was high, thin and helpless.  His fingers dipped, circled and dipped again, and she climaxed before the second pass, a flash-fire explosion that scorched through her, lightning lancing through her soul.  
  
He gave her no chance to recover, holding her hips firmly as he positioned her over him, filling her with one sure stroke, pushing past the lingering contractions. He urged her past this climax and into another one; a thunderclap that tore through her before she even realized it was there. She would have fallen if he hadn't steadied her, his hands on her shoulders forcing her to sit up straight; and still she had to brace herself, her hands flat on his heaving chest. He'd hoped to make it last, to bring her up again and again, but he could feel his own finish, boiling up low and deep inside. His mind abruptly shut down as his body exploded, and he needed to hear his name ringing through the room to know he hadn't left her behind.  
   
 _Several hours later …_  
  
He'd rebuilt the fire and placed the glass shield in front of the flames, she'd managed to get upstairs and drag the heavy comforter off the bed. What was left of dinner was sitting on the coffee table, which had been pushed to the side. Two wine glasses sat on the hearth, the fire's light playing dream colors off the walls. Groaning with satisfaction – now he knew how his mother's cat felt after a thorough tummy rubbing – Blaine leaned back against the couch, gathering both woman and comforter into his arms. She was almost asleep, dark honey hair covering his chest where the comforter ended. But she had just enough awareness left to ask.  
  
"Tell me again."  
  
"I love you." He pressed his lips to her forehead as he felt her slip into dreams. "Now, and ever."


	26. Colorado Skies

Zoya sprawled over the back seat of the Avalanche, grinning at the back of Blaine's head. He was grumbling while Zarana tried to explain that to an almost-12-year-old-girl, shopping malls were important tourist attractions. Thanks in part to a fire in the science lab, school had let out a week earlier than planned for Christmas break. Taking opportunity where he found it, Blaine had packed the three of them into the truck for a fast trip to Steamboat Springs, CO. As far as her first time on skis went, Zoya was just glad she was on her way back to Scottsdale with no broken bones. But at least she'd seen the mountain, Zarana had spent most of the week in the room, tucked into bed. Zoya thought it was food poisoning, Zarana thought it was altitude sickness. Blaine hadn't offered up a diagnosis, but he was watching his fiancée like a cat watches a mouse hole.  
  
They'd decided to wait until after the first of the year to get married, since everyone in the Parker clan still had nightmares, remembering how Blaine's older sister Aileen and her husband Kevin had gotten married during the holidays. Trying to manage Christmas, the wedding and New Year's had been a disaster nobody cared to repeat, and it was taken as a sure miracle that Aileen & Kevin were still together after 32 years.  
  
"We've got malls in Arizona!  She's been to them all. We've got the same stores in Arizona that they've got here."  
  
"But she hasn't seen them in this mall, or set up like this. For heaven's sake, Blaine, we're on vacation. You had your fun skiing, now it's our turn."  
  
While they'd been checking out of the ski lodge, Zoya had wandered into the gift shop and found a tourist flyer for Colorado Mills, a mall that was right on their way home. The nagging, whining, pleading, pestering and begging had commenced shortly thereafter. For a man who had been trained to keep his head in the face of overwhelming enemy fire, Blaine had no defense against a determined preteen. _'God help me when this kid discovers boys.'_ Not knowing that she had a steady e-mail circuit going with Matt, the boy she'd been friends with while she was living in the Lost Children's House. It had turned out that the pilot who had gone missing with Scurry, Tagalong, was Matt's cousin. Matt came from an Italian family that was nearly as big if not bigger than Zoya's Irish one, and had been able to give her pointers on how not to get lost in the crowd.  
  
Blaine shook his head as he maneuvered the Avalanche around the parking lot. The Saturday before Christmas, it looked like a very confused used-car lot. He came around a corner behind two enormous Dodge pickups and nearly rolled right over a late-1990s white Ford Mustang convertible that had to slew sideways to avoid him.  
  
Betray cast an exasperated glare across the car. It was hard enough to remain solid and whole like this, let alone deal with all the fools who got their driver's licenses out of Cracker-Jack boxes!  
  
 _< < This had better be worth it! >>_  
  
Zandar shook his head, smiling. Since he wasn't driving and therefore didn't have to concentrate on being solid, she could see the seat and backrest through him. **** It will be, it will be. I just have to make sure that Zoya finds her way into the right shop. ****  
  
 _< < You better, mister. >>_ During the course of this, Betray had managed to get the car turned around and going the right way. _< < No wonder people were so afraid of my father's old truck. You never realize how big one of those things is until it's on top of you. Oh, and by the way, you're driving this back to Denver. >>_ They'd 'borrowed' the car from the Denver PD impound lot, knowing the case it was evidence in wouldn't be coming to court until sometime after Easter. Betray had to admit, being alive hadn't been much fun, but being dead was a blast.  
  
Zoya hit the door like a rocket sled on rails, waving one impatient hand at Blaine's call to stay in sight. She loved shopping malls. There'd been only one in the city near the Lost Children's House, and Ashley hadn't said anything more beyond, "People we don't associate with hang out there." The plan when they'd been forced to go had been to park as close as possible to your objective, get in, get what you're after, and get out. Zoya hadn't understood the concept of wasting entire days in a mall until her cousins had gotten their hands on her. Now she was addicted.  
  
 _'Like a pinball in a ski jacket. Look at her go!'_ Blaine was very glad he'd caved in to Zoya's demand for a ski coat in the same hot pink Zarana's hair had once been. At least she was easy to find. There was no rhyme or reason to Zoya's movement, she had to see everything, and she had to see it all at once. And Zarana was right on their daughter's heels. Three times he made trips back to the truck to pack more gifts. He tried to understand – it was their first Christmas, there were nearly fifty people in his family to buy for, and there were all those missed Christmases to make up for. But he thought he understood Lifeline's comment about credit cards screaming for mercy.  
  
And then Zoya found the American Greetings store. That led to counting on her hands, trying to go through all her relatives, making sure she had cards for everybody. Which led to recounting, and then recounting again. This led to a few teasing comments on Blaine's part about the 2000 Presidential campaign, which led to his being banished to a bench outside the store. Fine, at least he could sit down!  
  
Betray leaned against a corner of a display case in the chocolate shop, debating which chocolate-coated caramel apple would least be noticed if it disappeared. _< < Well? >>_  
  
 **** Patience, patience. The store clerk is resetting the display. Apparently that particular figurine is rather popular this year. And yes, I am getting you one. ****  
 _  
<< Save yourself the psychic ten bucks, and just find me the ghost of the dog himself! >>_ The teenage kid who was moving trays of apples turned his back, and Betray made her move, managing to snag five different kinds before the kid turned back. _< < I'm heading your way, hurry up! >>_  
  
Zoya stared sightlessly at a display of porcelain shoes, waiting for the clerk to finish with the display of dogs nearby. She hadn't breathed a word to her parents, but she'd been following ghostly images of Zandar and Betray all afternoon. Now Zandar lounged at the end of the card rack, smiling indulgently. Whatever he'd been leading her to, it was in here. Finally the clerk walked away, and Zandar moved. He reached to the back of the shelf, concentrating enough to solidify his hand and pick up a tiny white dog. Zoya felt a crackle of something that wasn't quite heat or cold as her hand brushed against his.  She heard his voice as much in her heart as in her mind.  
  
 **** This is going to be very important in a few days. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right. ****  
  
She looked up at him in confusion.  Everything was already all right, wasn't it?  
  
 **** I misspoke. Everything is going to be better. I have to go, Betray won't cheerfully wait for me much longer. Merry Christmas, little one. I love you. ****  
  
 _'Merry Christmas, I love you, too. Merry Christmas, Betray.'_  
  
 _< < Merry Christmas, kiddo. Hey, try the chocolate apples. These things'll blow your mind. >>_  
  
And then both presences left her mind, as quickly as turning off a radio, and she was left with a white porcelain dog. It was a tiny thing, fitting easily in the palm of her hand. The dog had his head turned to the left, up and back, as if looking at his master. The bright black eyes were wide open, his tongue poking out of his little doggy grin. Everything about the little dog seemed to say, _'That was fun!  What are we going to do now?'_ She turned him over, and there was a price tag stuck on the underside of one porcelain paw. $10.00. It was a few steps to the counter.  
  
Blaine looked up as she came out. "Okay, now we can go."  
  
"At last," he teased. "I don't know about either of you, but my stomach thinks my throat's been cut. I asked around, and there's a Perkin’s not far from here."  
  
When they trooped back to the Avalanche, Blaine realized that the truck was as hungry as he was. So, first order of business, find a gas station. It was starting to snow.  
  
He was filling the truck and Zarana and Zoya had gone inside the convenience store when he heard it – the rumble of a powerful diesel engine. He half-turned, expecting to see a Peterbilt or a Mack.  
  
And found himself staring down the grill of the approaching Thunder Machine. Three motorcycles kept to the larger vehicle's tire tracks. Three? No, that wasn't right. Then he realized Torch and Monkeywrench were riding together. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zoya come barreling out the door, her eyes wide. Zarana was right behind her, one hand on Zoya's shoulder.  
  
Thrasher did a double take. "Zarana! Is that really you?"  
  
"Yes, it's me. What did you think, I crawled off and died somewhere?" She played up her old swagger for all it was worth, the good face she'd once put on it, the mask she'd shown the world so it wouldn't see what was truly beneath.  
  
Buzzer and Ripper followed Blaine with nervous eyes as he went inside to pay for the gas. They'd heard what had happened. Payback had managed to sneak one letter out before she got buried so deep in prison she'd never find her way back out. They knew.  
  
Zoya was watching Torch and Monkeywrench. When had they both gotten so old and sick? Sure, none of the lot was aging gracefully, but these two looked like they'd be inviting the Grim Reaper over to tea any day now. Then she heard Zarana's voice. "Of course, neither of you have seen a doctor lately."  
  
"We 'ave." Torch shot back. "And we both plan to enjoy this 'olidays, we won't see next year's."  
  
 _'They're dying?'_ Then she remembered, with the haziness of childhood memory, the fight. It had been after Zartan's 'death', but not long after, in the uneasy period when leadership of the gang hadn't been a certain thing by any means. Buzzer and Zandar had fought daily, both trying to gain the upper hand. Payback had been hanging around, trying to find a way to hold her position. And Torch had caught Monkeywrench in her bed. Devastated, he had struck out, trying to hurt Monkeywrench as he'd been hurt. And he had, he'd gone to a prostitute. Monkeywrench had been furious, had declared their relationship over. About six months after that, it had appeared they'd smoothed things over. Monkeywrench kept Payback on the side, but he and Torch were acknowledged as a couple again.  
  
Now, it seemed Torch's act of revenge was costing them both dearly. She heard the bell over the door jingle as Blaine came back out. "Are we ready to go?"  
  
"More than ready." With all the dignity of the Queen Herself, Zarana walked to the truck, allowed Blaine to help her in. Zoya went slower, casting glances at the five men who had once comprised the only world she’d known. As her father held her door, she looked one last time at Torch and Monkeywrench. _'I'll never see them again.'_  
  
Blaine turned to the tattered remains of a biker gang he'd once wished in Hell. "You know, this may sound strange, but I just realized I've got something to thank you guys for."  
  
"Wot's that, Joe?" Buzzer tried one last sneer. Blaine ignored it.  
  
"Zoya. That you didn't want her."


	27. Home is the Sailor

**Christmas Eve**  
  
The massive house was, finally, silent. Everyone was asleep. Since Blaine's was the only place big enough to assemble the whole clan, he was the _de facto_ host for all family gatherings.  
  
Zoya lay awake in the darkness, listening to the Celtic Christmas CD playing on the stereo. Bridget and Glenna were rolled up in sleeping bags on the floor. Raggs, an enormous orange tabby, was curled up in the crook of Zoya's knees. Rumbler, a gigantic Golden Retriever / Yellow Labrador / Newfoundland mix, was sprawled on the floor between Bridget and Glenna.  
  
Sighing, Zoya tossed the covers back and sat up, moving quietly so as not to wake her cousins. Raggs cracked one gold eye open, then rolled over on his other side.  
  
Moving as quietly as she could, Zoya crept downstairs. Christmas music played from every available stereo, and the tree lights had been left on overnight. Electric candles glowed in every window. The tree was what drew Zoya now. She stood in the middle of the Great Room, entranced by the 7-foot-tall pine, which stood in a corner away from the fireplace. It had taken three days to get it completely decorated. Lights, tinsel, bubbling candles, family heirloom ornaments, ornaments that had been made by schoolchildren dating back over 40 years. Various cards and small boxes were also hidden among the branches, and a tiny train circled the edges of a round, sparkly white rug. Underneath a plastic cube, safe from marauding paws and curious hands, was the manger scene that had been Michael Parker's gift to Mary Kate over 50 years ago. Forty-eight fuzzy red stockings lay across the brick hearth, where the fire glowed behind its' glass shield. Whenever Teague, Sean and Kelly dragged themselves home, it would be Teague's job to build up the fire so it wouldn't go out before morning. The pile of presents was the size of Mount Everest.  
  
Staring wide-eyed at the scene before her, Zoya never heard the kitchen door open, never noticed the man who crept in on cat's feet. With her back to the stairs, she didn't see him stop momentarily, or know that he slipped upstairs.  
  
She had no idea how long she'd stood there, until she heard Teague, Sean and Kelly crash through the kitchen door, making enough noise to wake the dead.  
  
"Wait, wait, I gotta set the alarm. Damn, I always think I'm gonna forget one of these numbers, then we'd have every John Wayne wannabe with a badge and a gun in Maricopa County in the front yard within 20 minutes. There. Hey, little sister! Waiting up for me?"  
  
Zoya crossed her eyes as Teague headed for the fire. "You wish. Look at the lot of you. It's Christmas Eve and you're all drunk as lords. You ought to be ashamed." She scowled at Teague as he rumpled her hair.  
  
"Sheathe the claws, she-cat. For your information, none of us drank at all. We just went out and had some fun. Now go on to bed. The faster you sleep the sooner it's morning."  
  
Shaking her head, Zoya followed her brother and cousins upstairs.  
  
Christmas Day began at 0605, when Aislinn hauled her bodily out of bed. "Wake up, slugabed. The earlier you get up, the longer Christmas lasts."  
  
"Well, how would I know? I've never had Christmas before." Already the noise level from downstairs was rising. Nearly 50 people, all talking at once, and somehow everyone understood everyone else perfectly.  
  
Raggs and Rumbler were already decorated with a few ribbons when Zoya settled onto the floor between her parents. Aileen passed her about five boxes of various sizes, telling her that they would be enough to start with.  
  
There were 4 generations of Parkers in one room. Centered on the couch were Michael and Mary Kate. Scattered around the floor between the couch and the hearth were their seven children, their spouses, their children – and in four cases, the children's spouses and their children. It all went something like this:  


 

**********

  
1st Generation  
 **Michael** & _Mary Kate_ :  
 _Aileen_ , **Blaine** , **Cormick** , _Dierdre_ , **Eachan** , _Finola_ and **Guthrie**.  


 

**********

  
2nd Generation  
 _Aileen_ & **Kevin** :  
 **Cullen** , **Brian** , _Moira_ and _Sorcha_.  
  
 **Blaine** & _Zarana_ :  
 **Calhoun** (nobody was mentioning his absence), _Aislinn_ , **Teague** and _Zoya_.  
  
 **Cormick** & _Shelagh_ :  
 **Sean** , **Kelly** , _Erin_ and _Adelia_.  
  
 _Dierdre_ & **Tynan** :  
 **Flynn** , **Caley** , **Patrick** and _Glenna_.  
  
 **Eachan** & _Megan_ :  
 **Donovan** , _Bridget_ and **Kerry**.  
  
 _Finola_ & **Ryan** :  
 **Seamus** , _Keely_ and _Maureen_.  
  
 **Guthrie** & _Ceara_ :  
 **Dougal** , _Maggie_ and Toby.  


 

**********

  
3rd Generation  
 **Cullen** & _Clare_ :  
 **Donal**.  
  
 **Calhoun** & _Siobhan_ :  
 _Allison_.  
  
 **Brian** & _Tara_ :  
 _Shea_.  
  
 _Moira_ & **Liam** :  
 **Tyrone**.  


 

**********

  
The ages ranged from 76-year-old Michael to 1-year-old Toby. Zoya grinned as she tied a sparkly red ribbon around Raggs's neck. So this was what a family felt like.  
  
Even waking up at 0600, it still took over three hours to pass out all the gifts and cards, including poking around in the branches of the tree. Zoya looked up from a Ford Pinto repair manual Patrick and Donovan had given her to see Blaine standing before the tree, grinning at Zarana.  
  
"You missed one."  
  
"That wasn't there. You put that there just now."  
  
"So, open it."  
  
Huffing out a breath, Zarana reached between two bubbling candles and pulled out a small box. What in the world could this be? She had the ring, and the Marine Corps pendant gleamed against the Arizona Cardinals jersey Blaine had slept in. Inside the box was a set of keys.  
  
"Remember that motorcycle shop we saw? And how you said it was tragic that the owner had let it fall down so badly? Well, I went and talked to the guy. Turns out he has terminal lung cancer. All his kids are interested in is how much longer he's going to take to die, and what the market value is of the buildings the shop is in. So, I bought the place. I thought you could build the place back up."  
  
Zarana stared. "You **bought me** a cycle shop?" At his grinning nod, she swept Zoya off the floor and did a spinning little dance in front of the fireplace. Her eyes were dancing with excitement.  
  
"Do you realize what this means? I'm a mechanic again."  
  
Suddenly, Rumbler raised a ribbon-bedecked head and let out one deep, voluminous **_"WOOF."_** Then he hauled himself off the floor and half up onto the couch. Hind paws on the floor and forepaws on the back of the couch, looking towards the stairs.  
  
 ** _"WOOF. WOOF. WOOF."_**  
  
Teague shook his head. "Jeez, Rumbler, pipe down. What's gotten into him? I haven't heard him bark like that since the last time … " That train of thought stopped dead in its tracks as his eyes went wide and his face went white. But Allie knew what he'd been about to say. She tossed down the controls of the miniature train, scrambled up off the floor, and went over both dog and couch, running for the short wall that shielded the stairs from the room. She rounded the wall and stopped, smiling up at the man hidden just around the corner. Her joyous shout sounded like all the church bells in the world ringing at once.  
  
 _ **"DADDY! DADDYDADDYDADDY!"**_  
  
And Calhoun was there, just there, sweeping her up off her feet into a bear hug as he walked around the wall, laughing. Everyone called his name at once, Teague and Aislinn following Allie's lead over the couch, Aislinn half-dragging-half-carrying a stunned Siobhan. Calhoun shifted Allie into the curve of one arm, wrapping the other one around his wife.  
  
Sean, Kelly and Flynn caught hold of Blaine, and he was grateful, because he felt like he was about to pass out. For seven months, he'd been steeling himself for the day a dark blue sedan would pull up in front of the house, and men in Navy dress uniforms would knock on the door, telling him his oldest son was gone forever. Now here was Calhoun, ducking and trying to hold Allie up as a shield, because Aislinn was swinging at him, telling him she was going to knock his skull around backwards. Teague was trying to catch his brother in a full nelson, but kept getting hampered by the presence of Siobhan and Allie, who weren't turning loose for anything.  
  
Zoya stood on the couch, one hand on Rumbler's shaggy golden shoulder. The dog was whining softly, but knew enough to wait his turn. The noise of the room faded around Zoya as she stared at the brother she only knew from pictures, and the TV broadcast the day he'd been shot down. He looked dreadful – he’d lost far more weight than a man his height could do without, his face was burned to nearly the same color as Our Lady Of Perpetual Help's dark red paint, and there were deep circles under his eyes, which seemed to have sunk back into his head. Then there were the scars, jagged slashes, white lines painted on the burnt skin of his face. She couldn't imagine what he looked like underneath the US Navy sweatshirt and sweatpants that she imagined must have fit once.  
  
But he was whole, alive and most importantly, **home**. From the corner of her eye, she saw Blaine round the end of the couch. Her father suddenly looked very old, as he gently pulled Aislinn and Teague away from Calhoun. With a squeeze and a gentle kiss on her chubby cheek, Calhoun passed Allie to Siobhan and faced his father.   
  
"Hey, Dad. Told you I'd make it home for Christmas."  
  
"You didn't say anything about scaring me half to death before you got here."  
  
"Oh, that." Calhoun shrugged, as if he'd done no more than get temporarily turned around on a Sunday drive after church. "Well, it's kind of hard to handle a Hornet when your entire port wing is missing."  
  
Father and son stared each other down for another five seconds before Blaine's facade cracked first. In those five seconds, volumes were passed silently between the two men; things they'd likely never say aloud, and certainly never in front of witnesses. Two wounded warriors sent off to battle in two separate but similar wars; a father and son who'd both spent sleepless nights wondering if they'd ever see the other's face in life again; the shared triumph only another warrior could ever understand. They'd both seen the elephant, and survived. Then Blaine shook his head, and reached across the few inches separating him from his firstborn.  
  
Zoya let out a whooshing breath she hadn't been aware of holding as Blaine and Calhoun hugged each other tenaciously, then laughed along with everyone else when Blaine reached up, grabbed a handful of Calhoun's shaggy, sandy-brown curls, and told him, "If you ever scare me like that again, I will let Aislinn knock your skull around backwards. And then I'll let Teague and Zoya have whatever's left of you."  
  
That got Calhoun's attention. "Zoya?" He scanned the room, searching out faces.  He snagged on one he didn't recognize, attached to a girl about 11 or 12 years old, standing on the couch with one hand buried in Rumbler's fur. His eyes, the eyes he'd inherited from his father, looked back at him from under a fall of dark honey hair. He looked at Blaine, his eyes curious.  
  
"Remember that teddy bear that sits on my desk at the office? Twelve years ago I shouldn't have been so quick to believe only exactly what I was seeing." Blaine walked over to the couch and pulled Zoya over the back. "Come here, baby." As if she were still a small child he carried her over to where the last missing piece of her life leaned back against the short wall in front of the stairs. "Calhoun, I want you to meet somebody. This is your little sister, Zoya Gayle Parker."  
  
Calhoun realized that this must have been the girl in front of the tree last night when he'd sneaked into the house. At the time, travel-weary, he'd thought she was either Bridget or Glenna. Looking across the room, he realized that Bridget was taller, and Glenna's hair was much shorter. He turned back to the girl in front of him, regarding her with serious eyes. "Guess we both got a little lost, huh?"  
  
Relief swept through Zoya like a tidal wave. "Yeah, but we both found our way home. Would you object to a hug from a total stranger?"  
  
And Calhoun's mask finally crashed. He favored her with a lopsided grin that he could only have inherited from their father. "Stranger, hell. You're my kid sister. Come here." For all he looked on the edge of collapse, his arms were like bands of steel around her. She could hear the rest of the family cheering, and then everything really was all right. Zarana walked over to stand at Blaine's side and was properly introduced as well, and Zoya had the idea that an immense weight had been lifted off Calhoun's shoulders; he didn't need to worry about Dad anymore, everything was okay now.  
  
The day passed in a blur of people, food, trying out new gifts and either trying to catch someone, or trying to avoid getting caught by someone under the mistletoe that hung in the arched doorway leading from the Great Room to the kitchen. Once, she was helping Donovan chase Kerry when Zarana caught her by one shoulder. _"Look."_ And she pointed toward another, smaller hallway, the one that led down to the game room. It was half-shielded by the tree, but down the hall … Zandar and Betray shimmered into existence for just a moment, smiling. Betray was carrying a blue blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. Then, as quickly as they'd come, they faded out again. Zoya felt an overwhelming sense of peace. Whatever demons had tormented her uncle and his woman, they were free now. She jumped as she felt Blaine's hand come down on her other shoulder. He was looking down the hall too, and he said a soft voice, "Ride safe, all of you."  
  
Calhoun was walking around the stereo when his eye caught a white flash in the display case next to the stereo cabinet. He turned to see exactly what it was, and stopped dead in his tracks. A tiny white porcelain dog grinned back at him. He fumbled with the door of the case, lifted the little dog out with trembling hands. For just a moment, the hard porcelain was soft fur. He could feel the warm lash of a tongue on his cheek and hear the joyful bark. He could hear his own voice, young and carefree, calling out to his best friend. _"Scurry!  Scurry, come here boy!  Come on, Scurry!"_ The reverie was broken when Aislinn appeared at his side, stroking her own fingers gently over the figurine. She had the same distant look in her eyes.  
  
"Isn't it just like him? Zoya found him in a card shop in a mall in Colorado last week, Dad took her and Zarana skiing up in Steamboat and they stopped once to get some last-minute stuff. Zoya said she walked into the shop and there he was. She said he almost jumped off the shelf into her hand, all by himself. And she never knew Scurry in her life."  
  
His hand steadier now, Calhoun replaced the little dog in the display case, closed the door. "We can't explain how things happen, Sis. We just have to go along as best we can. I guess Scurry knew I was coming home, and he had Zoya buy a figurine of himself, to send Dad a sign. I don't know, maybe." And he made himself a promise, right then and there, that when he, Siobhan and Allie got back to San Diego, he was going to buy Allie a Bichon Frisé puppy. Heck, maybe he'd buy her two.  
  
An hour before dinner the phone rang. It was Matt, wanting to know if Zoya's brother had sneaked into the house while everyone was sleeping the same way Matt's cousin had. Zoya had transferred from a line phone to a cordless one and locked herself in the bathroom for 45 minutes. Blaine remarked to Zarana that he was getting too old to be dealing with teenagers again. She replied that he'd better start getting used to it.  
  
It was nearly midnight before the place settled down again. Blaine closed the door of the master bedroom behind himself, closing his eyes on an exhausted sigh. There was a reason Christmas only came once a year.  
  
Zarana was sitting in front of the dressing table she'd found in an antique shop in Sedona back in August, brushing her hair. She was already dressed in a faded Calgary Stampeders jersey.  
  
"I'm going to take a shower before I lose the presence of mind not to pass out." He shoved away from the door, just missing the look on her face in the mirror.  
  
It actually did take him until after he came out of the shower and was tugging his Proud Navy Father t-shirt over his head. The little plastic stick was propped against the cup the toothpaste tubes were upended in. He picked it up, not realizing what it was at first. And then he saw the box it had come in, sitting crosswise on top of the trash can so it wouldn't fall in.  
  
She was still brushing her hair, long slow strokes to give herself something to do. He noticed she wouldn't meet his eyes in the mirror.  
  
"Was, ah, this what you meant before, when you said I'd better get used to being around teenagers again?"  
  
She turned to look at him, catching her breath at the look of sheer joy on his face. She half-stood as he reached down, sweeping her up off the padded bench, burying his face in her hair.  
  
"Remember that weekend in October? I think I'd better be careful when I wear that dress from now on."  
  
He processed the math in his head. "A 4th of July baby." He carried her over to the bed, laying her down as if she were as fragile as spun glass. His hand was shaking as he gently pushed a few strands of hair away from her face. "At least we'll never forget their birthday." He kissed her as gently as he could manage, and then pulled back to look at her. She looked as she had that first night in California, the night they'd made Zoya. When he had seen all his future in her eyes.  
  
"I love you so much, honey."  
  
She smiled, pulling him down to kiss her again. "I know."  


 

##########

  
**Friday, January 30th, 2004, 2245**  
  
Zoya sat pretzeled up in her chair, staring at the empty computer screen in front of her. Craig Morgan soared from her stereo, filling the room lit only by the computer's light.  
  
 _"Once I was a soldier  
And not afraid to die  
Now I'm a little older  
And not afraid to cry  
Every day I'm thankful  
Just to be alive  
If you've been where  
I've been any kind  
Of life is Paradise."_  
  
 _Paradise_  
Craig Morgan  
 _Craig Morgan_  
Atlantic 2000  
  
The door creaked open, and Calhoun filled up the space between door and frame. He looked better, after a month home, not so much like a member of the walking dead. He and Siobhan had decided to stay in Scottsdale while he was on medical leave, and Siobhan had taken a leave of absence from her job in the publicity department of the San Diego Padres organization. "Do not tell me you're doing homework at a quarter to 11 on a Friday night. Aren't you going dress shopping tomorrow?"  
  
Zoya rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me, I hate being 12. I'm too old for kiddy dresses like Allie's, and too young for adult-style dresses like Erin's and Adelia's. You guys have it so easy. Just rent the tux and have done with it. Or in your case your dress uniform. And I'm definitely not doing homework."  
  
"Good, it's Friday night." He closed the door and padded back down to his room.  
  
Zoya turned back to the computer, her gaze crossing over the 2004 Harley-Davidson calendar Teague had given her. Today was Friday. Sunday it would be a year since Thrasher and Monkeywrench had dropped her off at Ashley's front door. In 15 minutes, it would already be Saturday at the Lost Children's House. She'd only lived there for 4 months, but those months had changed her life. The door creaked again, and this time it was Blaine. "Are you still up?"  
  
She smiled. "I'm like Mom, you'd be amazed how little sleep I can get by on. Don't worry, I'll be ready to go tomorrow." Unlike Calhoun, he pulled himself completely inside, crossing the room to lean over and hug her as she sat in the chair. He noticed her computer was open to the word-processing program.  
  
"Sometimes I don't think you're real. I'm afraid I'll wake up and the last year will have been a dream, and I'll still be locked up in this huge house all by myself."  
  
She crossed her fingers over her heart. "I promise to make as much noise as I possibly can, the very first chance I get. Maybe if you can hear me around all the time, it'll be easier to convince yourself."  
  
He chuckled, kissing the top of her head. "You do that, kiddo. Don't stay up too late."  
  
"I won't. Night, Daddy."  
  
"Good night, Zoya Gayle."  
  
The CD cycled into the next song, and she fiddled with the remote until the ‘jodie call’ that began Paradise came back. She looked back at the screen, and finally poised her hands over the keyboard. _'Nobody will believe it even if I do write it down, but if I don't nobody will.'_ Her fingers began brushing over the keys.  
  
 _< < The house and the land it sat on was deeded under the name of a member of European nobility who had been murdered during the Vietnam War. All bills and similar correspondence was handled under that name. Somewhere in a file cabinet were papers for all of them, with the name Travis Archer under the space marked 'Legal Guardian'. Very few people needed to know that Travis Archer was a Master Sergeant in the Force Recon arm of the United States Marine Corps, and was therefore out of the country more often than he was in it. Money was administered through an offshore account under the name of an infant who had died at less than three months of age in 1820. The house itself – set well back from the road and surrounded by trees – was far enough out of the city that most residents of that city wouldn't venture that far away from their safe little cocoons for no good reason, but close enough that the house's residents weren't totally isolated. There were 24 of those permanent residents, and five former occupants who 'dropped in' whenever they were in town – which was as rarely as they could possibly manage. One indelible but permanent scar the deceptively peaceful Midwestern city of 111,454 left on those who managed to escape her clutches was the need to get as far away as possible. And then stay there._  
  
It was to this unlikely arrangement that not-quite-11-year-old Zoya Parker found herself deposited one frigid Saturday morning in February, dropped off like an unwanted house pet literally by the side of the road … >>


End file.
